+ 



29. Note on the Saker or Chcrrug Falcon (I\ Cherrug)% 



(Plates III and IV.) 

 Jiy LiEUT.-CoLOis^EL D. C.VnWjLOTT^ Secretary, Board of Examtners. 



ahar ghe l 



gh^ 



are styled cAarM. By Persian falconers the * passage ' or wild- 

 caught falcon is called halnhan^ the ' eyess ' or nestling being dis- 

 tinguished by the term charkfi. Arabs call this falcon saqar^ 

 (plural sttqur), the origin of the name sacre or saker, ^ the name 

 by which it was known to old English writers on Falconry; the 

 Arabs further distinguish different varieties or races by different 

 names. In Basrah and Baghdad the " white " variety with drops 

 on its back is called H.arr Farsi^ (or the Persian) ; another 

 variety, reddish in tinge, is called Httrr Shami (the Syrian) ; the 

 dark variety with drops on the back is Wacharl jarUdt ; and the 

 dark variety without drops Wachart^; while the "booted" 

 variety is incorrectly called ShungliflrJ^ The Turki name of this 

 falcon, especially of the female, is aitalgu or italyu. 



More than one race visits the Panjab in the cold weather. 

 Individuals so vary in size, shape, colouring, and markings, that it 

 is at first sight difficult to realise that they are of the same species, 

 Some birds, mature and immature, have white heads with the tail 

 full of drops as large as a three-penny piece; others have white 

 marks on the back ; while a few are yak-rang or almost whole- 

 coloured. In some varieties the tail-spots are scanty and bately 

 visible ; in others they are so white and numerous that the spread 

 tail appears to be nearly quite white. When the two centre tail- 

 feathers, the " deck-feathers " of old English and the ^amitd or 

 '' props *' of Arab falconers, are devoid of any spots, the bird 

 is styled by Indian falconers lagar-dum or " tailed like the 



with 



coloured 



4/ ^ ^ ■* ^ 



props unmarked." Even when the saker is ' whole 

 are sometimes a few white specks like pin-points on some of the wing- 

 feathers, and these are called by Arab falconers *' Pleiades." The 

 " white " variety, with many white marks on the back, is in the 

 immature plumage known to falconers of the Kapurthala State in 



1 By Englishmen in the Panjab it is generally called cherrug, 



* In speakiner often pronounced sagar* 

 3 The tiercel was called a ** sacret/' 



♦ flarr, *' noble/' is an adjective applied to certain hawks, hut as a sub- 

 stantive it means the yonng of certain Hnimala. 



6 The ivachari jarudl is preferred to the wachar'u The best varieties for 

 gazelle are mud to be the Fdrsi and the Shdml, 



« The Shunqir or Shun^dr of old MSS. was a species of Jer-falcon ; 

 vide .11. As. Soc. Bengal, Vol. Ill, No. 8, 1907, 



