Vol. Ill, No. 3.] Note on the Saker or Cherrug Falcon, 191 



[N.S.] 



position, eo as to force her to shift hei' feet. One hour of such car- 

 I'iage, is for a new hawk, worth the caiTiage of a whole day when she 

 is allowed merely to sit quiet and unhooded on the fist in the 

 bazar. I have had a * haggard ' come a distance of fifty yards to 

 the lure in the momintr, and then in the afternoon, after being car- 

 ried hare-faced all day in the bazar by an inexperienced falconei*, 

 refuse to even look at the lure when thrown out quite close to her. 

 I have sent this bird back to the bazar for one hour in charge of a 

 falconer accustomed to charyA^j and she has then come to the lure 

 as well as before. Bert, in his Treatise of HawJces and Hawking ^ 

 says: *' I have observed that ifc is much walking with my Hawke 

 that hath wrought such good effect in her; for in my walking and 

 turning, her eye doth still behold change of object, and the stiz'- 

 rinpf of her feete doth worke as much or more good in her, for that 

 maketh her desirous to sit still, and desirous of ease, which bating 

 doth not giue, and in the first making saueth her many a bate." 

 All this a saker requires and more, for she must be thoroughly 

 reclaimed,^ at the outset. She may appear iame in her own 

 house and garden, and come well to the lure on her own parade- 

 ground, and yet retain a certain amount of wild fear in her heart. 



If she baits much, she must be quieted by what some old 

 falconer — Bert, I think — calls "spouting," that is, the falconer 

 must fill his mouth with water and spout it out in a forcible spray, 

 well wetting the hawk first under each wing,* then on the 

 stomach between the legs, and finally, removing the hood, on the 

 head and breast. Squeezing water out of a sponge over the back 

 is useless ; and in any case the back feathers should not be wetted. 

 When wetted as described, the hawk will sit quiet on the fist, 

 di"aggle-tailed and miserable. She may have to be so wetted 

 again and again. 



OccasionHlly a saker is found so *' hawtyn and prowde " that 

 her spirit is not subdued by even these severe measures. You 

 must then hai-den your heart, put on your great-coat, wet the 

 hawk and sit out with her in the cold night. However sulky 

 and troublesome a chargjt may be, it can be manned,^ trained, and 

 entei^ed to wild houbara within twenty-one days. For other 

 quarty a longer time is necessaiy. Charges may be entered to 

 houbara, and even to hare, at any time ; but they should be entered 

 to kite or heron as soon as possible and while the '* first hunger " 

 is still on them — at least if they are * sore-hawks ' they must be 

 so entered. 



English falconers, who naturally measure all falcons by the 

 standard of the peregrine, would call the char gh sulky and stub- 

 bom, but whatever defects of temper this species may have, they 

 are cured by proper treatment in the early stages of training. 

 Many charghs there are, as docile as the ' falcon gentle.* 



1 ' To reclHim * in to mnke tame and famih'ar. 



* Bj lowering and raiaing the hand the hooded hawk can be made to 



expand her wings. 



3 * To maa * ia to accuatom to man's Dresenoft. 



