CHAPTER IIITHE SPARROW-HAWK

Muchthat has been written of theT̤arlānGoshawk is also applicable to the Common Sparrow-hawk.[57]There are four varieties, the light, the dark, the khaki, and the tawny. Of these four, the khaki has the best heart. The eyes in this variety are small; and the smaller the markings on the breast, the more the hawk will be esteemed, for the more courageous it will prove: it is the opposite of theQizil.

Into the azure vault of Heaven, my hawk I flew,Whispering to it a prayer, “Oh Bird of Mine be true;Come back to me!” But my foolish heart did not discernThat a hawk mid-air, well on the wing, could not return.O Fate, whose face is veiled to me!Return my hawk—propitious be!

Into the azure vault of Heaven, my hawk I flew,

Whispering to it a prayer, “Oh Bird of Mine be true;

Come back to me!” But my foolish heart did not discern

That a hawk mid-air, well on the wing, could not return.

O Fate, whose face is veiled to me!

Return my hawk—propitious be!

With the Sparrow-hawk, I have myself taken teal,chukor,stone-plover,[58]black-bellied sand-grouse[59]and short-eared owl.[60]Considering its size, the Sparrow-hawk is the boldest as well as the most powerful of all the short-winged hawks used in falconry.[61]I have frequently seen sparrow-hawks (especially eyesses) “bate”[62]at hares, but I could never muster up courage to let one go, to see the result.

Young Passage Sparrow-hawk.—Should a very good young sparrow-hawk be brought to you about the time of year that the Sun first enters into Virgo,[63]which is about the time the Sparrow-hawks first arrive in the country, nurse her carefully, for she is well worth keeping. At this time she will be a mere nestling, scarcely in fact more than seven weeks old. Her bones will not be properly set and her whole appearance will be spare and weakly. Now, don’t be in a hurry to fly her, unless indeed you wish to spoil her. If you destine her for large quarry, such aschukor,seesee,[64]black-bellied sand-grouse, and the like, “man” her very carefully, and let her take no fright at dogs or water, etc. Next train her to come to the lure, or fist. When she will fly readily to the fist, kill a small chicken under her daily,[65]and gorge her on it,—day by day increasing the size of the chicken, till she will fly readily to it,and seize it in your hand, the moment that you present it held firmly by both its legs. Proud of the progress made by your pupil, you may feel inclined to release your grasp of the chicken’s legs, in order to allow her to kill it unaided; but on no account must this fatal inclination be yielded to.

Now, after the hawk has been called to, and gorged on, two or three chickens given in the hand, she must be entered to two or three flying pigeons; the pigeons, with shortened wings, being released before her, in such a manner that she may take them. Each time she takes the pigeon, kill it cautiously, and let her take her pleasure on it.

When she has taken a few pigeons in this manner, call her as before to a live fowl held by the legs, but this time call her to it from some distance. As soon as she comes and seizes it, which she ought to without hesitation, kill it, and gorge her on it.

As soon as her training reaches this point, she should be confined in a cupboard, some seven feet long by three and a half broad. The cupboard, which should first be thoroughly swept and cleaned, must be kept to such a pitch of darkness, that it will be impossible for its occupant to distinguish the day from the night. If much more light be admitted, the hawk, by bating against the door or wall, will probably do herself some irremediable injury. She should be fed every evening, three or four hours after dark, by the light of a lamp, being taken on the fist for the purpose, and allowed to eat her fill. Her principal food should be sparrows and young pigeons, but in any case she must have constant change of diet. When so gorged that she can eat no more, offer her water in a cup, flicking the water with the finger to attract her attention to it. If she drink, so much the better, let her drink her fill: but if she evince no inclination to drink, remove the water and replace her in her prison. This treatment must be continued for at least forty days.

After the expiration of forty days, reduce the quantity of her food for four or five nights, and carry her by lamp light; in fact treat her in every respect like a wild-caught hawk. Evening by evening, the amount of carriage must be increased, until she is thoroughly “manned,”[66]when she will be ready to obey her master’s every behest.

The above method has certain special advantages. During the rest in confinement, the hawk’s bones will become thoroughly hard and set;[67]and from the high feeding during that forty days, she will attain the growth and strength of a twelvemonth; and her toes will be long and thick; and even large quarry, such aschukor, pigeons, and black-bellied sand-grouse, will stand a poor chance of breaking away from her clutches.

It is of course understood that, if destined for large quarry, she must never have been flown at sparrows nor even given any small bagged bird whole, from the day you first get her till the present. She must be made to forget that there is such a thing as small quarry in existence, or that any bird is fit for food except partridge, and sand-grouse, or such large game.

Eyess Sparrow-hawk.—I will now instruct you in another method of training the Sparrow-hawk, by which, in the field, it will be no whit inferior to the goshawks of most falconers. In the early Spring, get some trusty fowler to mark down a tree, in which a pair of Sparrow-hawks are “timbering.”[68]A strict watch must be kept on the nest, and the first time the parent birds are observed carrying food to their young, the tree must be scaled, and all the nestlings, except the largest female, removed. The nest will contain from three to five nestlings. The whole attention of the parent birds will now be bestowed on the solitary occupant, which, by thriving apace, will fully repay the care lavished on it. The nestling must be inspected by the fowler almost daily, until the whole of the quill feathers of the tail and wings are out.[69]Then four or five days before it is ready to fly, he must “seel”[70]its eyes while it is still in the nest and remove it, substituting for it, one of the nestlings originallyabducted. The nest will not then be forsaken: the parent birds will rear the restored substitute, and will year after year build in the same tree.

The nestling, its eyes “seeled,” must be conveyed carefully home, and its education conducted in precisely the same manner as already described. When taken up at the end of the forty days of confinement, your friends will probably delight you by mistaking her for a male goshawk,[71]so great will be her size. What a goshawk will do, she will do.

The author has also adopted the above plan with nestlings of theShāhīn, the Saker and theQizilGoshawk, with eminently satisfactory results. He humbly begs leave to add that the idea is an original one.

FOOTNOTES:[57]BāshaP.;qirg͟hī, qirqī, etc. T. (Accipiter nisus).[58]Chāk͟hrūq, also calledbachcha hubara, the common stone-plover (Œdicnemus crepitans).[59]Pterocles arenarius. The common Persian name issiyāh sīnaor “black breast.” The author, however, invariably gives it its Turki namebāqir-qaraorbāg͟hir qara, a word having the same signification. The Pin-tailed Sand-grouse is calledqil-i quiruqT.: it is theqat̤āof the Arabs.[60]Yāplāq, T.;videunder short-eared owl.[61]The late Sir Henry Lumsden (who used to hawk “ravine deer” withcharg͟hsin 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-hawkknock overan old cock pheasant on the lawn, which is was of course unable to hold. Hume, inMy 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:videnote72, page 15.[62]T̤apīdan, “to bate.” “‘Bate, bating;’ fluttering or flying off the fist.... Literally to beat the air with the wings, from the Frenchbattre.”—Harting.[63]i.e., about the middle of September.[64]Tīhūortayhū; the desert or sand-partridge, called in the Panjabsī-sīorsū-sūfrom its cry. It is not such a favourite cage-bird as the black partridge or thechukor. 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.

[57]BāshaP.;qirg͟hī, qirqī, etc. T. (Accipiter nisus).

[58]Chāk͟hrūq, also calledbachcha hubara, the common stone-plover (Œdicnemus crepitans).

[59]Pterocles arenarius. The common Persian name issiyāh sīnaor “black breast.” The author, however, invariably gives it its Turki namebāqir-qaraorbāg͟hir qara, a word having the same signification. The Pin-tailed Sand-grouse is calledqil-i quiruqT.: it is theqat̤āof the Arabs.

[60]Yāplāq, T.;videunder short-eared owl.

[61]The late Sir Henry Lumsden (who used to hawk “ravine deer” withcharg͟hsin 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-hawkknock overan old cock pheasant on the lawn, which is was of course unable to hold. Hume, inMy 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:videnote72, page 15.

[62]T̤apīdan, “to bate.” “‘Bate, bating;’ fluttering or flying off the fist.... Literally to beat the air with the wings, from the Frenchbattre.”—Harting.

[63]i.e., about the middle of September.

[64]Tīhūortayhū; the desert or sand-partridge, called in the Panjabsī-sīorsū-sūfrom its cry. It is not such a favourite cage-bird as the black partridge or thechukor. 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.

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