Untrained, untried, how could a falcon fight—
Fight and prevail against an eagle’s might?
This sport with the chark͟h and eagle must be pursued in the plains: in hilly country it is impossible.
Eyess Shahin and Eagles.—The eyess shahin is capable of being trained to eagles, but as it is small and delicate, it is not employed for this quarry.
FOOTNOTES:
[460] Ziring or zaring, i.e., not half-starved or crushed in spirit.
[461] The Rev. H. B. Tristram writing on the ornithology of North Africa (Ibis 1859) mentions “eagles, kites and sand-grouse” as quarry flown at by the Arab Shaikhs. [Elsewhere the same writer says that the Lanner and Barbary falcon are flown at sand-grouse. No Indian falconer, however, has succeeded with the latter quarry: it is too fast, and the hawk and quarry soon disappear from view. The sand-grouse will not let the hawk get above it when the hawk is “waiting on.” Mr. Tristram does not mention what device or artifice the Arabs adopt.] The author of the Land and the Book (W. M. Thomson, D.D.) says of trained falcons, in chapter xxv, “they will even bring down the largest eagle in the same way....”
[462] Chark͟h-i āshiyānī.
[463] Qara-qūsh.
[464] Vide, however, page 44.