FOOTNOTES:
[81] Shāh-būf.
[82] Rasānīdan, “to train.”
[83] Pācha-band. “Jesses, the short narrow straps of leather fastened round a hawk’s legs to hold her by.”—Harting. The jesses are never removed from the hawk’s legs. In the East the jesses are frequently made of woven silk or cotton, with small rings or “varvels” attached to their ends: with the short-winged hawks, the use of leather jesses is the exception. The “leash” is a long narrow thong (or in the East a silk or cotton cord) that is attached to the end of the “jesses” by means of a swivel, or otherwise, and is used for tying up a hawk to a perch or block. Vide also page 78, note [315].
[84] Qātima, a word used by the E. Turks and Kurds for a rope of goat hair. In India gut, or the sinews of cranes, are used for binding lures, etc.
[85] Qadam; a short pace of about twenty inches.
[86] Ẕiraʿ. “Three ẕiraʿ long, by five or six ẕiraʿ broad.” The Persian ẕiraʿ is variously stated to be a measure of forty, and forty-two inches in length.
[87] Du-gaza; a light, large-meshed net, six feet or more long, by four and a half feet or more broad, and suspended between two light bamboos or sticks, which are shod with iron spikes. This net is planted upright, twenty yards or more away from a resting hawk, while a live bird is pegged down in the centre of the net, a few feet from it, and on the side opposite to the hawk. A certain amount of spare net is gathered towards its centre and allowed to rest loose on the ground. The hawk makes straight for the fluttering bait, through the invisible net; the loose portion on the ground permits the net to “belly” like a sail, while the shock given causes the light uprights to collapse inwards, thus effectually enveloping the hawk.
[88] Presumably the length of these poles should be somewhat less than the breadth of the net.
[89] “One and a half ẕiraʿ.” The old English name for hawk-catching nets was “urines” or “uraynes.”
[90] Perhaps it can be kept in higher condition.
[91] It must not be supposed from this description that hawk-catching is by any means an easy business. In India, in the course of two or three weeks, the fowler may not catch more than three hawks worth keeping, and that, too, at the season the birds are migrating into the country.
[92] Apparently a slip on the author’s part. Fahd is properly the cheeta or hunting-leopard and not the panther. In Persian the former is called yūz and sometimes yūz-palang, while the latter is called palang only.
[93] In Seebohm’s British Birds, it is stated that the eagle owl preys on capercailzie and fawns, besides hares and other game.
[94] Partridges are caught in this manner by the Baluchis round Dera Ghazi Khan. Vide also Shaw’s High Tartary, Yarkand and Kashgar.
CHAPTER VIII
OTHER SPECIES OF OWLS
[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 species mentioned by him is the Yāplāg͟h or Yāplāq, and this species he again divides into two sub-species or races, viz., the “Desert or Plain Yāplāq,” and the “Garden or Grove Yāplāq.” The colour of the latter is said to be somewhat darker than that of the former. The first species is probably the Short-eared Owl (Otus brachyotus); while the second is probably either the Common Long-eared Owl (Otus vulgaris), or the Tawny Wood-Owl. The author also states that the former species, once it has successfully shifted from the first stoop of the falcon and has begun to “tower,”[96] is an exceedingly difficult quarry, and that only a passage Shāhīn or Peregrine is equal to the flight, the Saker not being swift enough.[97] The latter species of owl, he adds, is a poor performer and unable to “ring up”[96] to any great distance without being overtaken and killed.
Indian Grass-Owl.—The Short-eared Owl is, however, an easier quarry than the Indian Grass-Owl (Strix candida), which in India is taken both with Sakers and Peregrines. If, however, the Saker is not in high condition (in much higher condition than it is usually kept by natives of India), both hawk and quarry will soon be lost to view, ringing up, on a calm day completely out of sight and almost perpendicularly into the sky. In this species the iris is dark; it is therefore presumed that neither it nor any nearly allied species can be included under the name yāplāq.
Indian falconers, however, in the Panjab, have only one name for both the Short-eared and the Grass-Owl.
Afghan falconers state that, in their country, the Short-eared Owl is a common quarry for the Saker, as well as for the Peregrine.
The author continues:]—
Bride of the Well.—The next species of owl is smaller than the Yāplāq, and is hornless. Its prevailing colour is a yellowish white, something like that of the Tīqūn Goshawk. This species is especially common in Baghdad and other sacred places.[98] It is known to the Arabs by the name of the “Bride of the Well.”[99] It preys principally on the pigeons of the “Sacred Precincts;”[100] for that cuckoldy pimp, lacking regard and consideration, has settled that the pigeons of the precincts[100] are its proper prey, so it hunts them in the night-watches. In the Spring the attendants pull out the young owls from their holes in the walls, or from the interiors of the domes, and slay them. This species is smaller than the Yāplāq.
Little Owl (Spotted owlet?).—[The author next mentions a small owl that he styles Bāya-qūsh or Chug͟hd. In the Panjab, the spotted owlet (Athene Brama) is known by the latter name.[101] The author says of this species:]—It frequents old ruins. A young shāhīn, intended for the flight of the stone-plover, should first be given two or three pigeons from the hand, and then flown at a wild chug͟hd or two. After that it may be entered to stone-plover. The chug͟hd is useful for no other purpose but this.
“Bird of Night-melody”[102] or “Bird of Testimony.”[103]—The next species we come to is the “Bird of Night-melody,”[102] better known under its popular name of “The Bird of Testimony.”[103] The male of this beautifully marked little owlet is scarcely larger than a lark.[104]
All the above species of owl are strictly nocturnal in their habits.
Too whit, too whoo! The helpless owl,
In evening shades alone can prowl;
To find its food, to chase its prey,
’Tis helpless quite in light of day.