CATALOGUE. 
19 
country it is necessitated to take a wider circuit in search of its prey, 
and is of course much more on the wing. Such birds are more 
highly prized for training than forest-bred birds, which are, there- 
fore, seldom sought for. This Palcon destroys large quantities of 
game, partridges, quails, &c., and it is said to be very partial to 
paroquets. This assertion is corroborated by the fact of my having 
first obtained a specimen of the rare Alexandrine Paroquet by the 
agency of a Shaheen, which pounced on a flock that was crossing a 
glade of a forest in Malabar, and carried one off", but dropped it on my 
firing at it. One belonging to me, having lost a partridge at which 
it was flown, took a long flight after some paroquets it spied high 
up in the air. One I shot in Travancore, just after sunset, was 
busily devouring a Goatsucker {Caprimulgus) it had captured. 
The Shaheen breeds on steep and inaccessible cliff's. I have 
seen two eyries, the one on the Neelgherries, and the other at the 
celebrated hill-fort of Untoor. It lays its eggs in March and April, 
and the yoimg fly in May and June, when they are caught by the 
falconers. 
The Eoyal Falcon of the East (as its Indian name implies) is 
very highly prized by the natives for uso in? hawking, and. it is 
esteemed the first of all the Palcons, or black-eyed birds of prey, as 
they are called in native works on falconry,; — the large and powerful 
Bhyree {F. peregrinus) even being considered only second to it. 
Although hawking is now comparatively at a low ebb in India,, yet 
many individuals of this species are annually captured in various 
parts of the Peninsula, and taken for sale at Hydrabad and other 
places where the noble sport of falconry is yet carried on, and they 
sell for a considerable price. The Shaheen and other Falcons are 
usually caught by what is called the Eerwan. This is a thin strip of 
cane of a length about equal to the expanse of wings of the bird 
sought for. The ends of the stick are smeared? with birdlime for 
several inches, and a living bird is tied to the centre of it. On 
observing the hawk, the bird, which has its eyes sewn up to make it 
soar, is let loose, and the Palcon pounces on it and attempts to carry 
it off", when the ends of its wings strike the limed twig, and it falls to 
the ground. The birds usually selected for this purpose are doves, 
either Turtur risorius or T. humilis. 
The Shaheen is always trained for what in, the language of 
falconry is called a standing-gait, that is^ is not slipped from the 
hand at the quarry, but made to hover and circle high in the air over 
the falconer and party, and when the game is started it then makes 
