July 23, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
135 
Hawks and Hawking. 
Hawking as a sport appears to have declined 
considerably in recent years, and as a natural 
result the value of the various hunting birds has 
gone down too. We believe a good many natives 
in the Northwest Punjab still indulge in the 
sport, but elsewhere, as far as we know, hawks 
are only kept here and there to supply their 
owrjers with a little bird flesh now and again. 
The birds most commonly trained in the past 
and present and varying more or less in their 
popularity with falconers, are the following: 
The goshawk ( Astur palumbarius) , the shikra 
(Astur badius), 'the sparrow hawk ( Accipiter 
nisus), the Besra sparrow hawk ( Accipiter vir- 
gatus ), the peregrine falcon ( Falco peregrinus ), 
the Shahin falcon ( Falco peregri/nator) , the Lag- 
gar falcon ( Falco jugger), the Cherrug falcon 
{Falco cherrug), the merlin {JEsalon regulus), 
the red-headed merlin {JEsalon chicquera), the 
Barbary falcon or red-headed lanner ( Falco 
barbarus ) and the hobby ( Falco subbnteo), the 
two last named not being at all popular now. 
In all these species the female is larger than the 
male. Sporting hawks are classified by natives 
as Gulal Chashm and Shyah Chashm, according 
as the irides are yellow or brown. The goshawk, 
the shikra, the sparrow hawk and the Besra spar¬ 
row hawk belong to the former class, the re¬ 
mainder of those enumerated above come under 
the latter heading. Each of these classes has 
its good and bad points, but the yellow-eyed 
hawks are more popular in our opinion with 
the average falconer who cannot afford to go 
in for the sport on a scale so large or so grand 
as the rajas and wealthy people who are keen 
on it. A great point in favor of the yellow-eyed 
birds is that they are easily reclaimed after 
being flown at a bird. They usually have one, 
sometimes two tries at the quarry, and if not 
successful they either settle on a tree nearby, 
whence they come readily on being called by 
the owner, or they fly straight back to his hand. 
A hawk of this class if not properly trained to 
obey its owner’s call may give a little trouble 
in being taken off a tree, but if the instruction 
has been- anything like perfect, it invariably 
answers the call by coming to the hand at once. 
The very first thing a hawk is taught to do is 
to come when called, and unless it has been so 
trained, it is of no use whatsoever. 
As regards training, the methods adopted are 
essentially the same everywhere for the same 
species. The bird is kept awake day and night 
for a time, which is more or less variable with 
different birds and conditions in order to sub¬ 
due it. When the eyes are opened, usually about 
the third or fourth day, certain drugs, mixed in 
very small proportions, are administered. The 
goshawk is never drugged to our knowledge. 
The remaining three yellow-eyed hawks are 
usually drugged with a mixture of camphor and 
clarified butter .{ghee), as also are the merlin 
and the red-headed merlin. The falcons are 
as a rule given a barbarous mixture whicfi con¬ 
sists of small quantities of camphor, opium, al¬ 
mond (kernel), the scrapings from the parti¬ 
tions dividing the seed compartments inside a 
poppy capsule and cochineal beetles. A pill is 
made of this mixture and put into a piece of 
meat which is given the hawk, otherwise we 
fear the hawk would be inclined to shy at it. 
If you ask a trainer what the reason for such 
a mixture is, he will tell you that each ingre¬ 
dient has a different effect on the bird. We do 
not pretend to remember all these little effects, 
but the last named (the beetles) are said to 
make the bird “hushiar,” which may mean al¬ 
most anything or nothing. Probably camphor 
and clarified butter would do just as well for 
the falcons as for the others. Plaving got over 
the effects of the drug, the hawk or falcon is 
instructed in the art of obedience when called. 
This it may learn to do in a few days if it is 
properly handled. When the bird has become 
quite tame and used to being on the hand, the 
next thing to be done is to give it a small bird, 
specially caught for the purpose, and more or 
less disabled to prevent its escaping. A few 
more birds, each one livelier than the last, are 
MR. young’s “ ’COON HUNTER.” 
given and the hawk is ready to be flown at its 
first bird. The time required for training varies 
somewhat with the different species and also with 
the length of time the bird has been out of the 
nest and looking for its own food. Falconers 
in this country prefer a bird that has seen a bit 
of the world and undergone somewhat in the 
way of instruction by the parents to a nestling. 
On the other hand we conclude from what we 
have heard that a bird that has been a long time 
out, say six or seven months, is not liked, as it 
is harder to train and to break out of its old 
habits. It is not hard to understand why a 
nestling is not brought under training if one 
only thinks of the trouble it would 'be to keep 
and look after one till it was old enough to 
train. It would have no idea of what it had to 
do and would probably take some time to get 
ready. Moreover, suitable young birds are 
readily obtained where the species is resident, 
and even seasonal visitors are easy to get, as 
young birds of a likely age come down in num¬ 
bers at the commencement of winter—usually in 
October. 
In catching hawks and falcons either a net or 
bird lime is used. In both cases a live bird is 
used as a bait and is tied to a peg in the ground 
by one leg nearby a tree on which the bird you 
wish to catch has been seen to settle. A fine net 
is then spread close to the bait supported by two 
upright sticks and placed between the bait and 
the tree. The hawk swoops at the tied bird, but 
is held up by the net and never reaches its vic¬ 
tim. The bird lime plan, which we have seen 
put into practice, is as follows: The bait is 
laid out in the same way as for use with a net, 
but instead of the latter two sticks, smeared 
with bird lime, are lightly stood upright in the 
ground, their tops being connected by a string 
covered with the lime. This trap is then placed 
between the bait and the tree on which the hawk 
is seated. When the latter darts at its intended 
victim the string first catches it and then the 
loosened sticks get mixed up and cling to the 
feathers, so disabling the hawk for flight. 
Jerdon gives another method which he calls the 
“Eerwan,” but which we have not seen em¬ 
ployed. 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 bird lime for several inches and a living 
bird is tied to the center of it. On observing 
the hawk, the bird is let loose, and the falcon 
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. Both methods in 
which bird lime is employed are unsatisfactory, 
as the hawk’s feathers get covered with the fig 
juice (generally extracted from the pipal, Ficus 
religiosa) and are liable to be plucked out alto¬ 
gether or to be so covered as to hinder the 
flight of the bird. This would be rather a draw¬ 
back as hawks and falcons do not moult till the 
year after the one in which they leave the nest. 
Bird lime is remarkably sticky stuff and takes 
a lot of getting off, but natives who adopt the 
plan in catching birds for sale use a mixture of 
the lime with oil and something else, and this 
is not so liable to harm the plumage and is easier 
to get off the feathers. 
When caught, some of the less widely dis¬ 
tributed species are taken long distances for 
sale, and the prices vary with the distance 
traveled, and to a greater extent with the per¬ 
sons who buy them. Native princes and other 
wealthy people, for instance, would pay more 
than would an ordinary hawk fancier who pays 
for the bird and not for the sake of paying or 
the subsequent talk over a tall price. In a sub¬ 
sequent issue of the Asian we may give the 
names of the various sporting birds (English, 
scientific and native) with a short account of 
each one and its peculiarities for the benefit of 
those readers who are not ‘‘in the run ’ of hawk¬ 
ing, but to-day we shall content ourselves with 
a few remarks on points which may be of in¬ 
terest to some of our amateur hawkers. 
To begin with, if you wish your hawk to catch 
birds for you, it is natural not to feed it previ¬ 
ous to taking it out. It catches birds in the hope 
of getting a feed, and for this reason and to 
avoid cruelty, if possible, it is customary to take 
out a piece of meat of some sort which is shown 
to the hawk through the feathers of the bird 
it has caught. The hawk naturally supposes that 
