CHAPTER XIVTHE VULTURES
Vulture.—[The author now briefly describes a species of bare-necked vulture that he callsDāl, apparently the only species of true vulture known to him. The description contains nothing of interest. He continues:]—
Scavenger or Egyptian Vulture.—Before the first moult the plumage of the Scavenger Vulture is dark, with a few small light-coloured spots on the back and breast. The head is nude and yellow. After the first moult, a certain number of white feathers make their appearance. After the second, the bird becomes quite white, with the exception of the ends of the flight-feathers, which remain black.
The gut[144]of this vulture, which is at the end of the sternum,[145]applied as a poultice, fresh and warm, for three consecutive days,is a certain cure for scabbed eyes that water, and from which the lashes have dropped off, or for fistulous sores that will yield to no ointment. The poultices should not be removed for twelve hours: it will then be noticed that numerous minute worms have been drawn by them from the wound. At the third application, if it please God, a cure will be effected. The author can testify to the efficacy of this remedy.
Use as a “train.”—If it is intended to train achark͟hto take eagles, it should first be given the necessary “trains” by hand, and then entered to wild quarry by being flown a few times at young scavenger vultures in the dark immature plumage. As they are slow on the wing and show no fight,[146]the youngchark͟hcan take them with ease.
Though purely carrion feeders, the Vultures (as also the Raven described in the next chapter) are generally included amongst the Rapacious Birds: these huge birds, with beaks powerful enough to tear open the skin of a dead camel or ass, are unable to catch and kill even a helpless partridge.
FOOTNOTES:[140]Haggard Sakers will generally fly at harriers, refusing to give up the chase and so getting lost. A haggard peregrine I had killed a harrier.[141]Chīlāq-i qāpāq-i kūtāh.[142]Dāl; elsewheredāl-i murdār-k͟hur.[143]Kachal charkas; the Egyptian Vulture:kachalmeans “scald-headed;”charkasis corrupted form ofkarkas, 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.”
[140]Haggard Sakers will generally fly at harriers, refusing to give up the chase and so getting lost. A haggard peregrine I had killed a harrier.
[140]Haggard Sakers will generally fly at harriers, refusing to give up the chase and so getting lost. A haggard peregrine I had killed a harrier.
[141]Chīlāq-i qāpāq-i kūtāh.
[141]Chīlāq-i qāpāq-i kūtāh.
[142]Dāl; elsewheredāl-i murdār-k͟hur.
[142]Dāl; elsewheredāl-i murdār-k͟hur.
[143]Kachal charkas; the Egyptian Vulture:kachalmeans “scald-headed;”charkasis corrupted form ofkarkas, 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.
[143]Kachal charkas; the Egyptian Vulture:kachalmeans “scald-headed;”charkasis corrupted form ofkarkas, 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.”
[144]K͟hazīna,k͟hazāna, “the gut.” This word does not mean the “crop.”
[145]ʿAz̤m-i zawraqī,lit.“boat-bone.”
[145]ʿAz̤m-i zawraqī,lit.“boat-bone.”