Vol. Ill, ^N'o/S.] Note on the Saker or Cherrtig Falcon, 181 



[N.8.] 



one moult. In a bird of one or of two moults, the colour of the cere 



If 



and feet is much the same as in the Immature bird ; but some- 

 times the colour is lemon -yellow or greenish -yellow. In very 

 old birds the colour is deep orange. In the immature.. bird the 

 colouring of the back is in appearance uniform, though a close 



inspection will reveal a reddish -brown edging to the feathers. 

 In a moulted bird not only is this edging more marked, but also, 

 when the bird is newly caught and in good condition, a side-light 

 will show up a bluish tinge in some of the back feathers. Some- 

 times, too, a minute examination will discover one or two old 

 feathers remaining in the breast. 



The general colouration of old birds is of that i^eddish nature 

 common to so many desert animals. I once found a lost saker 

 seated with drooping-wings on a dead houbara, Avhich she had 



into the friendly shadow of a neighbouring bush. It 

 was her silent crouching- attitude that first made me suspect the 

 presence of a distance soaring eagle. On another occasioA, 

 when hawking in broken ground, both saker and houbara 

 disappeared from sight over a low ridge into a small plain beyond. 

 By the time we reached the crest of the ridge nothing was in view. 

 Then, first one and next a second scavenger- vultiu^e, leaving a 

 distant peak, passed by us and circling singly over one particular 

 spot in the bare and open plain, silently returned to tlieir resting- 

 place. Next came a solitary raven, which repeated the manoeuvre 

 with significant croakings. Though nothing was visible, we rode 

 down to the spot, when our eyes becoming as it were unexpectedly 

 focussed, a rock on the gi*ound assumed a sudden resemblance to a 

 falcon, A close examination revealed a If^rge cock houbara con- 

 cealed beneath the lost hawk's still and drooping wings, so com- 

 pletely did the colouring of hawk and quarry harmonise with the 

 ground. Is even this large and powex^ful falcon in need of the 

 mantle of protective colouration or has it assumed a desert- coloured 

 garb merely out of sympathy with its surroundings ? Certain it 

 is that it is often robbed of a meal by eagles and jackals, not to 

 mention members of its own species. A Muslim friend tells me 

 that one bird I sent to him as a present was killed by a wild cat, 

 which sprang upon it under the very nose of the falconer, after 

 the hawk had brought down an houbara. Eagles, too, soaring 

 out of sight, drop like stones from their invisible posts, and not 

 only rob but sometimes even kill the hawk. By them, too, the 

 jesses ^ are sometimes mistaken for quarry, 



Plate III., figure 1, is reproduced from a photograph of an 

 exceptionaly large female, verif dark variety, in the immature 

 plumage ; while figure 2 is from a photograph of an ordinary 

 brown bird, whole-coloured, with a Panjabi hood. 



iteS 

 tinned with black/'' and the leu's of thp x^onno- bnvf ns '^ arpvish 



Blanford describes the bill of F. cherrng as being *' pearly whit< 

 ipped with black/' and the legs of the young bii'd as '' gi'eyis 



1 Persian MSS. for this reason frequently warn the reader against 

 jesses of red leather. 



2 A hawk-catcher tells me that lie once caught a healthy saker that had 



