[143] Kachal charkas; the Egyptian Vulture: kachal means “scald-headed;” charkas is corrupted form of karkas, a common term for a vulture. The Egyptian vulture feeds largely on human ordure, a habit that can be traced in the popular name given to it by soldiers in India.
[144] K͟hazīna, k͟hazāna, “the gut.” This word does not mean the “crop.”
[145] ʿAz̤m-i zawraqī, lit. “boat-bone.”
CHAPTER XV
THE RAVEN
Raven.—The Raven,[147] though a carrion feeder, has just claims to be considered a Bird of Prey. I recollect once seeing a raven in the jungle seize a wild chukor; I eventually succeeded in releasing the bird from its clutches.
It is a peculiarity of the Raven that if it is deprived of sight by having its eyeballs pierced with a needle, it may, by confinement in darkness for the space of twenty-four hours, be completely restored to sight.
In ʿArabistān it is caught in traps and trained for fowling in the same manner that the Kestril[148] is trained in the Dashtistān[149] of Fārs, and the eagle-owl in Kirmānshāh[150] and elsewhere.
FOOTNOTES:
[146] Some thirty odd years ago the shikra used to be trained in the Kapurthala State to take the Egyptian Vulture. The young shikra was entered by being fed on a live vulture with seeled eyes, meat being tied on the back or head. The Egyptian Vulture is slow in taking flight, and when on the ground will let a man approach to within a few feet of it. The falconer, shikra in hand, has only to walk up to within a few feet of the unsuspecting vulture while it is resting on the ground, throw the shikra, and secure the quarry before it has even got so far as to spread its wings for flight. It is probably this “flight” that is referred to by old travellers who state that the shikra is flown at eagles. The Egyptian Vulture is also a quarry easily taken by a trained lynx. The lynx simply bounds quietly and quickly up to it, and springs as the vulture prepares to spread its wings. Partridges and such quarry are, however, scientifically stalked by it.
[147] Kulāg͟h-i siyāh-i quzqūn. I once saw a pair of ravens harassing a wild hare by pulling tufts of hair and skin out of it. Had I not interfered they would have killed it. Wild ravens in India will chase house-pigeons and occasionally enter the dovecot and kill them.