FOOTNOTES:
[57] Bāsha P.; qirg͟hī, qirqī, etc. T. (Accipiter nisus).
[58] Chāk͟hrūq, also called bachcha hubara, the common stone-plover (Œdicnemus crepitans).
[59] Pterocles arenarius. The common Persian name is siyāh sīna or “black breast.” The author, however, invariably gives it its Turki name bāqir-qara or bāg͟hir qara, a word having the same signification. The Pin-tailed Sand-grouse is called qil-i quiruq T.: it is the qat̤ā of the Arabs.
[60] Yāplāq, T.; vide under short-eared owl.
[61] The late Sir Henry Lumsden (who used to hawk “ravine deer” with charg͟hs in Hoti Mardan), told the translator in Scotland that he had frequently seen wild sparrow-hawks kill wood-pigeons, and that he had that very morning seen a sparrow-hawk knock over an old cock pheasant on the lawn, which is was of course unable to hold. Hume, in My Scrap Book (page 132), under the description of his “Dove Hawk” expresses a doubt whether the “true nisus” would kill a bird as large as a dove: vide note [72], page 15.
[62] T̤apīdan, “to bate.” “‘Bate, bating;’ fluttering or flying off the fist.... Literally to beat the air with the wings, from the French battre.”—Harting.
[63] i.e., about the middle of September.
[64] Tīhū or tayhū; the desert or sand-partridge, called in the Panjab sī-sī or sū-sū from its cry. It is not such a favourite cage-bird as the black partridge or the chukor. It is not used for fighting: both sexes are spurless. In Oudh the sparrow-hawk is flown at grey partridges without the assistance of dogs.
[65] The value of a fowl is about four pence.
[66] “‘Manning, manned’; making a hawk tame by accustoming her to man’s presence.”—Harting.
[67] Mag͟hz-i ustuk͟hwān-ash siyāh mī-shavad, lit. “the marrow of her bones becomes black.”
[68] “And we shall say that hawkys doon draw When they bere tymbering to their nestes.”—Boke of St. Albans. [“To timber,” in old English, is “to build a nest.”]
[69] Parhā-yi ḥalāl, lit. “lawful feathers.” There is a belief that until the quills of the tail and wings are produced a bird is not ‘lawful’ for food.
[70] “To seel,” is to sew up the eyes: a thread is passed through the centre of each lower eye-lid, near its edge; the two threads are then knotted together on the top of the head, being drawn so tight that the lower eye-lids cover and close the eyes. Wild birds so treated sit quite still and do not injure themselves.
CHAPTER IV
THE PĪQŪ[72] SPARROW-HAWK
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 second, or dark variety, has a reddish tinge running through the darker colour of its plumage.
These hawks arrive in the country about the beginning of September, some twenty days before the advent of the Sparrow-hawks.
Inferiority of Eyess Pīqū.—Unlike the Sparrow-hawk, the eyess of the Pīqū is much inferior to the passage-hawk; the eyess, from its craven spirit, being with difficulty entered to quarry. For this reason it is little esteemed. The eyess of the Sparrow-hawk, on the contrary, surpasses the passage-hawk.
Of the two varieties, the tawny is the better, surpassing, as it does, the Sparrow-hawk in appearance, more especially so after the first or second moult.
The dark variety, however, is sulky and runaway.
Though slower on the wing than the Sparrow-hawk, the tawny variety can take with success any quarry that the former can. In fact, from a working point of view, there is little to choose between them. The Pīqū is, however, by far the hardier of the two, enduring with indifference the extremes of heat and cold. Flown in the hot weather from morning till night, it shows no signs of distress, but rather seems to get brisker and brisker after each successive flight: it is impervious to fatigue. It is certainly quite ten times hardier than the Sparrow-hawk.
In affection for its master, it also surpasses the Sparrow-hawk, but as before stated, it is slow on the wing, and to be flown with success, requires to be thrown skilfully.[73] If unskilfully thrown, the quarry will get a start, and the hawk will meet with nothing but disappointment. The Pīqū must take its quarry right off or not at all.
In appearance the Pīqū very nearly resembles the Sparrow-hawk, but its feet are stouter, its “arms”[74] more powerful, and its wings shorter: it has also a conspicuous dark line under the chin. The larger this chin-line, the better the bird.[75]