180 Journal of tlte Asiatic Society of Benyah [March, 1907. 



the Panjab, by the tenri chital cliaryJi* This variety is considered 

 by them deficient in courage and unsuitable for that most 

 difficult of all quarries the common kite [Milvus govinda), Indian 

 ^falconers are gi^eat believers in colouring, and even English falconei's 

 have their prejudices. The present writer objects to " \vhite *' 

 charghs — not to those with merely white heads and tails — as in 

 •his experience such birds are soft. Pigeon racers in Europe 

 reject certain colours, and presumably do so from experience. 

 However, no great reliance is to be placed on any special colouia- 

 tion in passage-c/uMgA.^. Some old birds are marked very like 

 young kestrils, and the statement of Kapurtliala falconers that 

 such birds w^ere *' chttal cTiargis '' in the immatui^e plumage is 

 probably correct. In " Lahore to Tarkand, *' the account of the 

 Government Mission of 1870, there is a coloui-ed figure of *^ Falco 

 Jiendersoni^' that has the appearance of being merely a specimen 

 of an old bird of this variety. 



Peculiarities of plumage may disappear to a great extent in 

 the moult. The coloming of the ' intennewed ' falcon depends to a 

 great extent on feeding and exposure. 'Haggards ' vary, nearly if 

 tiot quite, as much as do the ' sore-hawks/ 



A vajriety of saker that does not appear to have been yet 

 described is said to be feathered on the tarsi and feet like 

 *' certain breeds of pigeons.'* Amongst the professional falconers 

 of Pindi Gheb this variety is called sang-sang, but amongst 

 falconers of the Derajat it is distinguished by the adjective pa-moZy^ 

 which may be translated " booted." Arab falconers of Basrah 

 incorrectly call this variety Shunghar^ a name (probably of a 

 species of Jer- falcon) familiar to them from old Persian MSS, on 

 Falconry. I have not personally met with this variety, but one 

 English falconer told me that he had owned and trained three, 

 and many Punjabi and a few Arab falconers have assured me that 

 they had personal knowledge of its existence, A Punjabi falconer 

 tells me that the flight-feathers and pendent feathers in specimens 

 he has seen were longer than in the ordinary saker, but that 

 otherwise the plumage did not differ, 



The author of the Baz-Nnma-yi Ndsirt mentions a species or 

 a variety of saker that he says he has met with only in the vicin- 

 ity of Baghdad, The flight-feathers, he states, are dark in coloux- 

 and extend beyond the tail, and the bird has an outward resem- 

 blance to the Hobby. The female is about the size of a tiercel of 

 the ordinary species of saker, and is nearly as swift as a shnhtn. 

 He says it takes black-partridge and stone-plover with ease, while 



some few there are that will take houbara. I questioned some 

 Indian and Persian falconers of Baghdad on the subject, but they 

 all seemed ignorant of the existence of this species. 

 . ^ Though the plumage of the mature and immature saker is 

 said not to differ, even an inexperienced falconer could distinguish 

 between young and old biids, side by side. It is sometimes 

 difficult, however, without such companson, to distinguish a bird of 



1 Fd-rnoz ia a pigeon-fancier'a term for pigeons with feathers on the fe*"t. 



