On the following day feed her lightly;[601] and on the day following that, again fly her at a heron. If she is in her proper condition[602] and not too fat, and is also hungry, it is impossible for her to fail, even if the heron ring up into the Seventh Heaven[603]—unless, of course, an eagle interferes or the heron drops into a broad stream that cannot be crossed. Should either of these mishaps occur, lure her without delay, and feed her well. In the latter case, you may consider she has taken this heron: it is as though she had done so. On the morrow, please God, she will not fail.
If your hawk has had a hard flight after a heron, she should be fed up on it, and not flown a second time that day. If, however, she kills very quickly and without exertion, there is no harm in giving her a second flight.
If you want your saker to fly heron well, you should keep her for this flight alone and not fly her at anything else.
A young passage saker in the first or immature plumage,[604] is far better for this flight than the “intermewed” hawk,[605] for, after the moult, a hawk becomes heavy, and cannot ring up after a heron. For one or two moults a hawk will indeed kill heron in a sort of fashion,[606] but after three or four moults she is useless for this flight;[607] you must procure a young bālābān[608] for it.
FOOTNOTES:
[580] Ḥuqār, corrup. of the Arabic ʿuqār, which is possibly also the name of the white egret. In some parts of Persia and in the Kapurthala State in the Panjab, the common heron is called būtīmār. Sakers are not as easily entered to heron as they are to hubara or to hare.
[581] T̤alba, P., “a lure”: in India dalba, corrup. of t̤alba. In Baṣrah and Baghdad the lure is called baftara, but in Kwet and Bahrain Island milwā,iḥ, root unknown.
[582] Vāq, “night-heron”; in some parts of the Panjab wāqwāq; in the Kapurthala State awānk.
[583] A short description by the Author, of the night-heron, being unnecessary, is here omitted.
[584] Sakers as a rule do not fly this quarry unless entered by trains. The flesh of the night-heron is not injurious to sakers, vide page 137, note [591].