Vol. Ill, No. 3.] Note on the Baker or Cherrtig Falcon. 185 



coolish. One bird bathed on the 17th and again on the 27th of 

 August in Dera Ghazi Khan, and for a third time in December in 

 the hill station of Parachinar when tlie water was freezinglj 

 cold. 1 have never known of any * sore-liawk * or * haggard * 

 bathing during its first season, and no Indian falconer I liave ques- 

 tioned has ever heard of a chargh bathing at all. 



During the moult I have never known one eat " rangle 

 as shahins and peregrines do. 



51 



Sakers are very playful and will sometimes play with fallen 

 leaves like kittens. They have, too, a curious habit of shrinking up 

 their shoulders and crouching down wlien sparrows settle near their 

 block. After feeding them up in the field and riding home with 

 them unhooded they will adopt the same attitude on passing by a 

 desert lark on the giound. 



In a wild state sakers rob laaars and kites, and of course, when 

 opportunity offers, smaller hawks * as well. I think that the saker 

 usually rol)s only kites high up in the air. A kite with food gets 

 mobbed by its fellows, and rising to a height to enjoy a quiet meal^ 

 there falls a victim to its powerful i^obber. Sakers also feed largely 

 on field rats of different species, and on lizards (Uromasttx,^ etc.). 

 A Turkish gentlemen told me that in an eyrie at Kerman (in 

 Persia) he found a large snake not quite dead. Sakers also prey 

 on quail, see-see partridges, Indian crows, and probably on the 

 short-eared owl, as well as on small birds. I have seen one 

 kill a starling. Falcoiiers of Tabriz in Persia liave told me that 

 occasionally these hawks create a havoc amongst the pigeons of fan- 

 ciers, and that when falconers catch a saker there they levy hlack- 

 mail from the pigeon-fanciers. Once, in camp, I was calling a young 

 saker to the lure, when it spied a pair of wild blue-rocks feeding 

 amongst the squadron-horses, and mnde an ineffectual stoop. One 

 pigeon took refuge in a sowar's tent ; the hawk sat on the top and 

 waited. The sowar drove out the pigeon, which commenced to 

 * ring-up ' perpendicularly, the hawk below it. The pigeon must 

 have lost its head, for it was soon mastered and taken. Now no 

 saker is fast enough to kill even a good house-pigeon in fair open 

 flight. Some sakers at least, in a wild state, kill hares, while all, 

 I think, prey on the houbara bustard {Otis macqneenn). Hares 

 are perhaps chiefly hnnted and preyed on by the pair when rearing 

 young, but as for houbara—** r/? a r^s and houbara are enemies even 

 from the egg. " Sakers, especially when in, the low condition they 

 are usually kept by Indian falconers, very seldom check at the lure to 

 chase crows and mainas; consequently it is commonly supposed 

 that in a wild state they do not prey on smnll birds. Only two 



1 I ODce saw a merlin rob some small hawk. The merlin was robbed 



by ft lagar, which in tnm was robbed by a chargt- Finally an eagle gave 

 chase . 



^ Kites feed jargelj on Uie wing. 



3 The sSna or sdndha of the Panjab. The flesh is white and rich look- 

 ing and very like fat-turkey. This lizard is eaten hy pariah tribes as well as 

 by pariah dog8. 



