SAKER FALCON. 29 
the head is brown, or in adult dress blackish slaty, peregrinus; if 
rufous, babylonicus. It is peregrinus if the cheek stripe is broad and 
massive; babylonicus if long and narrow." Mr. Hume has added a 
note telling us he will not vouch for the constancy of those characters, 
but they will be useful taken with this caution. 
I quote the following from Heuglin's " Ornithologie Nord Ost 
Africas:" — "The Saker Falcon, like its congener, the Indian Jugger, 
changes its colour but little with increasing age; generally the upper 
parts in the old birds are not overspread with bluish grey, and show 
but slight sign of bands. The ground colour of the under parts 
alternates between a clear white and a bright brownish yellow, and 
is, with the exception of the whitish throat, striped or dotted with 
dark brown, blending into a pale rusty fawn. The Saker is the 
hunting Falcon (par excellence) of the Arabian and Syrian Falconers. 
It is only a winter visitor in Lower Egypt, and is therefore introduced 
from Syria, Asia Minor, the Crimea, and Persia — good birds fetching 
enormous prices. When the waterfowl take up their winter quarters 
on the lagoons and morasses of the delta of the Nile, numbers of 
Falcons and Eagles assemble at the same time, viz., Lanners, Pere- 
grines, Imperial Eagles, and with them now and then a Saker, which 
soon chooses for himself a resting-place on a solitary palm, acacia, or 
sycamore, from which he can overlook his hunting ground. At dawn 
of day the dinning noise of thousands of Geese, Ducks, and Sander- 
lings, which invade the rushy islets in the lagoons, or the shallow 
open waters, is first heard. Then the Saker leaves its post, regardless 
of the mist which covers the waters. It moves in a straight line, low 
down towards a lively flock of Ducks. The moment it is seen the 
Ducks either dive or rise up, and try to save themselves by flight. 
Now the Falcon descends a little, rushing like an arrow, and either 
beats down its prey or seizes it at once in its talons, and carries it, 
heedless of the screaming of rival Kites and Falcons, to the first high 
and dry spot, where it feasts at pleasure upon its victim. Sometimes 
it circles also in the air, and suddenly descends, as though in play, 
upon the fowl scattered about the morasses, and picking out one from 
the rest, it gives chase. The quarry seldom escapes, although the 
Saker is much less hasty and violent in its way of setting to work 
and hunting than its allies. During the warmer part of the day it is 
very active in its movements, and upon approaching twilight it retires 
with quiet, direct, and somewhat lazy flight towards its resting-place 
for the night. The Arabian Falconers catch the Saker in iron wire 
snares, the sides of which are covered with strips of cloth to protect 
the talons of the birds. These traps are placed on the spot where the 
