If the shāhīn bind to the head of the quarry but let it go again after a slight struggle, call her to the lure and quickly feed her up on the warm flesh of a pigeon or of a chicken, and, on the morrow, she will not fail you.
If the shāhīn approach the crane close, but neither strike it nor stoop at it, act in the same way, i.e., lure her and feed her on warm flesh; for amongst falconers it is accepted as a fact that, if a shāhīn chase the quarry at which she is unhooded, only for the length of her leash, and be then quickly fed on warm palatable flesh, she will, on the morrow, chase the same quarry for double that distance.
Fly her, I say, on the morrow, and if she again chases and again fails, lure her and feed her up on warm flesh.
If you have patience and act as directed, she is certain, at the third or fourth flight, to take the quarry.
Recollect that a shāhīn differs in disposition from all other hawks; in disposition it is the most noble. An eyess chark͟h on the contrary, if lured and fed after she has turned tail, will, from the ignobleness[565] of her nature, contract this habit of turning tail. Not so the shāhīn, for if she be rewarded on the lure after a chase of ten yards, she will on the second day chase for fifty yards; and will, on the third day, either take the quarry, or else make such an earnest stoop that she may be considered to have taken it.
If your shāhīn binds to the crane high up in the air, seizing it by the head, and then, when nearing the earth, unbinds and strikes it to the ground, you must be close up to render assistance by seizing the crane to prevent it, if not disabled, from escaping. You should, too, have with you an old made hawk, shāhīn or chark͟h, ready to fly at a quarry that is perhaps only partially disabled; for it is the habit of most shāhīns to unbind and altogether release the quarry before touching the earth.[566] A second made hawk is therefore necessary to secure the partially disabled quarry.
XXIV
INTERMEWED PEREGRINES (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY LIEUT.-COL. S. BIDDULPH)
Should your shāhīn be buffeted by the crane and in consequence turn tail, you should fly her for a few days at crane just at sunset. Should this expedient fail, try the following remedy:—
Call her to the lure of crane’s wings for a day or two (flying her at no quarry), and kill for her under the lure some live bird. After that mount your horse, go out into the open country and fly her at a raven, an hubara, or a stone-plover, or, failing these three, at a little-owl.[567] Take one of these three with her and feed her on the warm flesh. Next evening fly her at a crane and she will not fail you, but will return to her former excellence. For a shāhīn that has been buffeted by a crane and therefore turns tail, there is no medicine like a flight at a raven or a stone-plover. Don’t, my son, think that you will remake her by flying her at a heron; for on the contrary, you will, by so doing, mar her for crane. Often have I seen a crane-hawk so spoilt.