The Baz-nama-yi Nasiri

_T̤ug͟hral_ [CRESTED GOSHAWK?]—The first species worthy of note is the _T̤ug͟hral_.[27] During my many wanderings I have searched diligently for this species, but in vain, and a...

THREE SPECIES.—[The author now describes three races of goshawk, which he distinguishes by the names of _Tīqūn_; _T̤arlān_; and _Qizil_:[33] each of these three he sub-divides i...

Much that has been written of the _T̤arlān_ Goshawk is also applicable to the Common Sparrow-hawk.[57] There are four varieties, the light, the dark, the khaki, and the tawny. O...

THE _Pīqū_ (_Shikra_).—The next hawk to be described is the _Pīqū_. There are two varieties. The first, or tawny variety, has the markings on the breast large and distinct. The...

The _Shikra_[76] is said to be of stouter and finer appearance than either the _Pīqū_ or the Sparrow-hawk and to be trained in India to take the pied crow.[77] It is rarely foun...

We now come to the Serpent Eagle,[79] so well known to every fowler. Should one be desired as a pet, it can either be captured by any of the ordinary fowler’s devices, or else t...

GREAT EAGLE OWL.—Nestlings of this species are frequently taken by fowlers, reared by hand, and then trained[82] for the sport of “owling.” When first taken from the nest, they...

[SHORT-EARED OWL; LONG-EARED OWL.—The author now imperfectly describes five or six species of owl, which the translator is unable with any certainty to identify. The first speci...

YELLOW-EYED SPECIES.—In the yellow-eyed species, the plumage of the young bird is henna-coloured [chestnut brown], but after its first moult, some white feathers make their appe...

[The description of the Bearded Vulture[112] as given by the author is sufficiently accurate for identification. He, however, adorns it with “two horns or ears like those of the...

[The author gives only a very brief description of the Osprey and its habits, mentioning the peculiar structure of its feet, and its habit of hovering over water. He also mentio...

[The author commences this chapter with the statement that it is his intention to describe those species of the black-eyed birds of prey that have at different times come into h...

KITES [AND HARRIERS].—There are three common species of kites.[134] In the first, the two centre tail-feathers, called by the Arabs _ʿamūd_,[135] and by Persian and Turkish[136]...

VULTURE.—[The author now briefly describes a species of bare-necked vulture that he calls _Dāl_, apparently the only species of true vulture known to him. The description contai...

RAVEN.—The Raven,[147] though a carrion feeder, has just claims to be considered a Bird of Prey. I recollect once seeing a raven in the jungle seize a wild _chukor_; I eventuall...

SHUNQĀR OR JERFALCON.—The Jerfalcon[151] is a species known to me only by description. During the whole of my sporting career, I have neither come across it myself, nor known a...

The best _shāhīns_ are procured from three districts: from _Urūm_[180] in Ottoman territory, from _Ardabīl_[181] in Persia, and from the hills of _Shammar_[182] in Arabia on the...

I have trained peregrines[190] to gazelle. They are, however, delicate[191] birds, as well as bold and daring: they dash themselves impetuously against the gazelle’s horns and t...

_Kabīdī_ (?).—The first race or variety described is apparently named _kabīdī_:[199]]—It has a white head, without any cheek-stripe or dark mark under the eyes.[200] With this e...

Another is found in Nejd[232] in Turkish territory, where it lays its eggs on the bare ground, like the black-breasted sand-grouse,[233] and the houbara bustard. This variety is...

The Arabs have two strange devices for catching the _bālābān_. It chances sometimes that, while out hawking, a wild _bālābān_ will suddenly drop from the sky, and seize a flushe...

This little falcon is beyond all praise. There are three varieties, the dark, the light, and the yellow, the first being the best. No Persian falconer has yet found the nest of...

The hobby resembles the merlin somewhat, but is larger, darker in colouring, and prettier in appearance. It has long broad wings, dark in colouring. Its feet are small and yello...

This “falcon” closely resembles the Indian Sparrow-Hawk,[279] but the young bird is smaller and darker in colouration. Also it has not the dark stripe under the chin.[280] The o...

There are two species of kestril. One species is yellowish in colouration and is covered with very pretty spots and markings; the other is yellowish but without markings, whilst...

Amongst the “black-eyed” birds of prey must be classed a small sparrow-like bird, grey and black in colouring. In the Kurdish language it is called _bāzūrī_, and in Persian _ālā...

I have described to you the chief peculiarities of the “Yellow-Eyed” and the “Black-Eyed” birds of prey. I will now teach you a few matters that will make the masters of the Art...

METHOD OF SNARING A GOSHAWK WITH THE AID OF A LAMP.—Should you happen to see a goshawk (_t̤arlān_) settle on a tree towards sunset, keep a careful watch on it from a distance ti...

After treating the hawk as described at the end of the last chapter, keep her “mailed”[314] for an hour or two, and furnish her with jesses, leash, and halsband.[315] After two...

Should a passage falcon with “seeled”[401] eyes come into your possession the first thing is to examine it carefully and classify it. Having decided on the race to which the fal...

ANECDOTES OF A BAGHDAD FALCONER.—There is a well-known story of a famous falconer of Baghdad, named _Sayyid Adham_. For a long time he was blessed with no offspring, but at leng...

TRAINING THE PASSAGE SAKER TO GAZELLE.—Procure the head of a freshly-killed gazelle. Excite your hawk’s appetite by calling her name, and then remove her hood that she may insta...

When you first take the eyess from the eyrie, feed her well, that she may grow fat and stout and strong, and may, by taking her quarry in style, exhibit all her pride and power.

In the beginning of the Autumn you must, with your eyess, take a large number of hubara bustard so that she may become adroit and lose her rawness. As your hawk is a nestling an...

ANOTHER METHOD OF TRAINING _Chark͟h_ AND _Bālābān_ TO GAZELLE.—The people of the _Fārs_ desert train the _chark͟h_ and _bālābān_ to gazelle by another method. In the early Autum...

Now, my son, let me instruct thee in the training of the _Shāhīn_ so that thy falcon may in the field excel those of other sportsmen, and thou thyself be acknowledged a master....

flight for a _shāhīn_ that is to be entered to stone-plover. Panjabī falconers call the spotted owlet (_Athene Brama_) _chug͟hd_. This species is not uncommon in Persia, being o...

When she knows the lure well, get a live chicken and tie it by the leg to the lure, with a string about twenty inches long. Lure the hawk from a long distance, casting into the...

You must know that it is the pride and glory of a falconer that his _bālābān_ should take common crane with dash and resolution, _i.e._, that she should stoop quickly and bind s...

Now let me say a few words concerning the management of hawks in the moult. The more hawks of any kind are flown at quarry and the better they are protected from the severity of...

Moulting hawks are of two kinds; the one “generous,” the other “miserly.” The “generous” are those that moult quickly; the “miserly” those that positively refuse to part with th...

You must know that during the moult there is no food so good, for both short-winged and long-winged hawks, as the flesh of the two-legged rat, called by the Arabs _jarbūʿ_[651]...

My son, though life and death are in the hands of the Creator, still the physician is for the relief of the sick. Such remedies and treatments as I have by my own experience pro...

_Remedy_: should it arise from humidity of temperament, feed her for three days on larks and sparrows, giving her the feathers so that she may cast in the morning. Should she no...

_Remedy_: first bind a piece of cotton cloth on your finger, which then introduce into the hawk’s mouth, and rub the eruption till the blood comes. Take sumac and gall-apple, po...

Should your hawk be unable to “tire” with force, and should she draw her breath with difficulty and her crop become filled with air, it is a sign that the air passages of her no...

Should your hawk get a swelling on the ear, which afterwards produces pus, the chances are that she will become deaf: if this disease does nothing more, it will at least render...

If your hawk have epilepsy—and I have owned and seen many epileptic hawks—when you fly her she will perhaps take the quarry, but just before you come up to render her assistance...

This disease is of three kinds. One arises from smoke and dust and dirt. The symptoms of all three are the same: if the hawk make the slightest exertion, she draws her breath wi...

The symptoms of this disease are, that the soft feathers under the tail and round the vent are soiled by the mutes; that when muting the hawk raises her tail higher than usual,...

As mentioned in a previous chapter, the pulse of a human being in sound health has seventy-five beats to the minute, while a hawk in good health has a pulse of a hundred-and-twe...

This disease, which is called _qārishqa_,[704] is commoner in Persia than elsewhere. From what I have observed, it arises from taking a moulting hawk out of the mew too soon, th...

The symptoms of lice are these: the feathers on the back of the neck stand erect, and the hawk is ever scratching her head with her foot and picking at her back and breast, with...

If your hawk is ever pulling out the feathers from her breast, and thighs, and stomach, and has done so since she was young, and even after moulting has not forsaken the practic...

If your hawk mope, and the feathers of her head stand on end, and her mutes, too, be red as though there were drops of blood in them, it is a sign that she is suffering from hea...

_Akmaja_ is a disease akin to paralysis, palsy, and epilepsy, but is yet none of these three. The hawk grows thin without any apparent cause, and her tail and wings seem palsied...

Know that this disease is of two kinds, and that gazelle-hawks are peculiarly subject to it; for a keen _bālābān_ will stoop with force at the hard head of the gazelle, thereby...

Sometimes a hawk loses all power in one of its toes and is quite unable to grasp its food with it. _Treatment_: apply a leech. If this fail, brand the toe lengthways with a need...

Should anyone, out of enmity to you, break the wing- or tail-feathers of your hawk, you must match the broken feathers as far as possible with others, and “imp”[750] them. First...

OBSTRUCTION DUE TO A “CASTING.”—Now, my son, a casting of bone, or of feathers, or of wool, or of cotton-wool, may get stuck in a hawk’s stomach[760] at the end of the sternum,[...

In all hawks, whether long-winged or short, seven flight-feathers, by God’s creation, show from under the coverts called _yār-māliq_,[770] while in the tail there are in all twe...

My son, I will now give thee sage counsel: do thou give ear to my advice and store it up in thy mind; for so shalt thou find future salvation and present success.

If your hawk, in pursuit of a water-fowl, happen to fall into the water in the depth of Winter, she will, if you do not apply remedies, certainly perish.[775] _Treatment_: if th...

Should you be caught in the snow far from your stage and have no means of procuring food for your hawks—a deadly cold wind springing up in your teeth, your hawks will certainly...

Should your hawk fall into a stream and be swept away,[778] and when recovered be lifeless, the treatment, even though the hawk has been apparently dead for half an hour, is as...

Never forget the advice I will now give you. _First_: borrow nothing from any man, neither one penny nor a million; for if your request be granted, you are under an eternal obli...

Perhaps a goshawk or a sparrow-hawk may come into your possession that is naturally addicted to the vice of soaring;[782] that is, when you cast her at any quarry she will eithe...

Before setting down long-winged hawks that have been flown at great quarry, it is necessary to brand their nostrils, and this is especially necessary in the case of gazelle- and...

If your hawk has worked hard and taken her quarry and you come up and see that she is blown, that her beak is open and her wings are loose, on no account feed her up, or you wil...

If wheat be soaked three times in the froth of a _mast_ camel and then dried and given to birds to eat, they will fall senseless. Also if beans be boiled in rats-bane,[802] and...