28 SAKER FALCON. 
so has Bechstein, having like Temminck and Naumann, received his 
specimens from the Vienna Museum, the only place where the true 
Saker then existed; they have described it as Lanner. The Saker is 
very rare now in collections, and it is not found, to my knowledge, 
in the English or French Museums." (Schlegel writes in 1844-53.) " 
The Saker has been very well figured under the name of Lanner, 
by Gould, Naumann, and Susemihl. 
The word Saker or Sacer, used in Europe since the Emperor Frederick, 
is the Arabic name for Falcon; it must not be confounded with the 
Latin Sacer, which means "sacred," for this mistake has caused the 
F. sacer to be confounded with the Sacred Falcon of the Egyptians, 
and has been one of the means of throwing confusion over its history. 
Several have been killed in Hungary, and young birds have been 
brought thence to Austria, taken out of their nests in the month of 
May, about sixty years ago, and sent to the principal Falconers in 
Europe. Pallas, under the name of Lanner, speaks of two species, 
one stronger than the other, from the Ural Mountains; the weaker and 
smaller one more common from the deserts of Grand Tartary. Pallas, 
whose remarks in natural history are very exact, says, (and all his 
observations are evidently referable to the true Saker,) they build 
their nests on trees or even shrubs, found in the midst of the desert. 
The young birds, to the number of two or three, often leave the nest 
before they are full-grown, and follow their mother everywhere, 
screaming lustily. They are then easily caught by the inhabitants of 
the desert, and sold to the Kalmuc Tartars as hunting birds. They 
are used sometimes for taking the Kite, as they are considered too 
small for this purpose. 
Mr. Gurney has favoured me with the following localities in which 
this bird has been observed: — "Algeria, Egypt, Dobrudsha, Greece, 
Tarsus, Lebanon, Northern India, Cashmere, Ladak, and China." It 
is very common on the Volga. 
The Saker Falcon is closely allied to, but distinct from, the Jugger 
of India, as the reader may readily convince himself if he will read 
Mr. Hume's exhaustive account of the latter: ("My Scrap-Book, " p. 70.) 
To Indian sportsmen the last paragraph of this account may be useful, 
and I will therefore copy it for their benefit. "Generally it may be 
said that if any beginner meets in India with a true Falcon of large 
size, without any markings on the upper surface, it is F. jugger. If 
there are markings, and there are large round or oval spots, the bird 
is F. sacer (a nearly allied and as yet undiscriminated species). If 
the markings are bars, and the head and nape nearly black, the latter 
with a few rufous or buffy feathers, it is peregrinator or atriceps; if 
