CHAPTER XXXIXON MANAGEMENT DURING THE MOULT
Nowlet me say a few words concerning the management of hawks in the moult. The more hawks of any kind are flown at quarry and the better they are protected from the severity of heat and cold, the better and quicker will they moult. Hawks moult cleaner and quicker in the hot regions of Persia than in the cold.[635]Further you must pay the greatest attention to the flesh you give them, not feeding them on one kind of meat only, for if you do, they will certainly fall sick.
Now if you wish to moult your hawks in a hot region, such as Baghdad, you must construct out of split-cane a “mew” of a size proportionate to the number of your hawks, building it on the river bank where theShimāl[636]wind can constantly be felt. In front of this house or room, enclose an open space with a wall.[637]Insidethe room, construct at a distance of forty inches from the wall, as many hollow mud platforms as you have hawks.[638]Fill in the top of the platforms with sand and fine gravel, and spread the floor of the room also to the depth of a span with sand and gravel. On the platforms intended for short-winged hawks, spread leaves of willow, or wild mint, fresh and green, or any other kind of greenery, so that the hawks may lie down and rest on it. Next, in front of each platform, construct in the ground a small bathing tank lined with red clay. Every morning early, you must sprinkle the inside of the mew with water, and every evening as soon as the sun has set, you must take out your hawks, short-winged and long-winged, and “weather”[639]them in the open-air enclosure that is in front of their room. In the outside enclosure, too, there must be, dug out of the ground, small tanks, which should be lined with clay. Doubtless you are saying to yourself, “Why can’t I substitute a copper or an earthen basin?” Now, were you to substitute a copper or an earthen basin, there would be a danger that while splashing about in the water, the moulting hawk might strike the half-grown wing- or tail-quills that are full of blood against the hard substance of the basin, and that the injury might cause the blood to dry up in the quills, which would thereby become “strangled,” and would eventually drop out. Now with a tank of beaten clay and sand there is no such danger. In short, every hawk in this outside enclosure also, must have its own bathing-pool.
“Rangle.”—In front of each long-winged hawk there should be a handful of pebbles ranging from a size smaller than a pea to a size larger than a bean; for it is the habit of all falcons[640]in the mew to swallow small stones on most afternoons before they are fed, and to cast them up again with a great deal of “bile.”[641]Should a hawk have stones in her stomach when you feed her, she willretain the meat in her feet and wait a little till she has cast up the stones. Not till then will she feed.
Short-winged hawks do not eat “Rangle.”—Goshawks and other short-winged hawks do not eat stones in the moult.
During the moult you must feed your hawk twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, letting her eat as much as she pleases, so that she be gorged.[642]
If the “mew” be in a “cool-region,” every short-winged hawk, from a common sparrow-hawk to a white goshawk, should have a room to itself, proportionate to its size. A few air-holes should be made on the north side. In this room, two or three perches of varying thickness should be erected, and the perches themselves shouldnotbe turned to a uniform thickness, so that the hawk may have a choice and select a perch that suits its fancy at the time. A roomy bathing-pool must also be constructed in the ground. Next, place in the room a piece of matting [made of split cane] to the centre of which a cord is attached. At first you must feed the hawk twice a day, till she is fat. As soon as she is fat, the amount of her food must be a fixed quantity, and this should be bound on to the centre of the matting and left, so that she may feed when she feels inclined.
It is not advisable to keep falcons loose like this in a room; in fact, it is injurious to do so.[643]
FOOTNOTES:[633]It is not clear what the author means by “lion with a buffalo.” The hunting leopard is trained in other countries besides India to take antelope and gazelle.[634]By this title theShiʿahsrefer toʿAlī. The writer was undoubtedly aShiʿah. TheSunnisof the present day, but not theShiʿahs, style the Sultan of Turkey “Commander of the Faithful.”[635]Garm-sīr va sard-sīr, “hot regions and cold.”Tabrīz,T̤ihrānand parts ofIṣfahānaresard-sīr. The city ofIṣfahānand ofShīrāzare “middling.”[636]Shimāl, “North,” is the name given to the prevalent wind in Baghdad and in the Persian Gulf.[637]The wall would naturally be of mud or of sun-dried bricks and would cost little.[638]Sakūis a “wooden bench, a garden seat”; or as here a “mud platform.”The author has not expressed himself at all clearly or else there are omissions in the text. The passage might mean that the platforms should be forty inches apart or be forty inches high.[639]“Weathering” is placing hawks, usually unhooded, in the open air on blocks. Eastern falconers do not “weather” their hawks, as during the hawking season the hawks are on their fists in the open air many hours.[640]I have never seen a saker eat stones.[641]Ṣafrā, “yellow bile,” one of the four humours of the body.[642]In the plains of India, hawks during the moult should not be so gorged, at least not during the four or five months of hot weather. Hawks that are kept too fat will not moult properly. Further they should be fed only once in the day, and that in the morning. If gorged in the evening, their rest is affected, and they do not get the benefit of the slight coolness of the night.[643]I one year, in Kohat, India, tried moulting a young (chūz) peregrine in a large outhouse, high and roomy. The hawk did not moult at all, and frequently got so fat and heavy that she was unable to fly up to her perch until her food was reduced for a day or two. However, falconers in England recommend keeping a moulting hawk loose in a loft.
[633]It is not clear what the author means by “lion with a buffalo.” The hunting leopard is trained in other countries besides India to take antelope and gazelle.
[633]It is not clear what the author means by “lion with a buffalo.” The hunting leopard is trained in other countries besides India to take antelope and gazelle.
[634]By this title theShiʿahsrefer toʿAlī. The writer was undoubtedly aShiʿah. TheSunnisof the present day, but not theShiʿahs, style the Sultan of Turkey “Commander of the Faithful.”
[634]By this title theShiʿahsrefer toʿAlī. The writer was undoubtedly aShiʿah. TheSunnisof the present day, but not theShiʿahs, style the Sultan of Turkey “Commander of the Faithful.”
[635]Garm-sīr va sard-sīr, “hot regions and cold.”Tabrīz,T̤ihrānand parts ofIṣfahānaresard-sīr. The city ofIṣfahānand ofShīrāzare “middling.”
[635]Garm-sīr va sard-sīr, “hot regions and cold.”Tabrīz,T̤ihrānand parts ofIṣfahānaresard-sīr. The city ofIṣfahānand ofShīrāzare “middling.”
[636]Shimāl, “North,” is the name given to the prevalent wind in Baghdad and in the Persian Gulf.
[636]Shimāl, “North,” is the name given to the prevalent wind in Baghdad and in the Persian Gulf.
[637]The wall would naturally be of mud or of sun-dried bricks and would cost little.
[637]The wall would naturally be of mud or of sun-dried bricks and would cost little.
[638]Sakūis a “wooden bench, a garden seat”; or as here a “mud platform.”The author has not expressed himself at all clearly or else there are omissions in the text. The passage might mean that the platforms should be forty inches apart or be forty inches high.
[638]Sakūis a “wooden bench, a garden seat”; or as here a “mud platform.”
The author has not expressed himself at all clearly or else there are omissions in the text. The passage might mean that the platforms should be forty inches apart or be forty inches high.
[639]“Weathering” is placing hawks, usually unhooded, in the open air on blocks. Eastern falconers do not “weather” their hawks, as during the hawking season the hawks are on their fists in the open air many hours.
[639]“Weathering” is placing hawks, usually unhooded, in the open air on blocks. Eastern falconers do not “weather” their hawks, as during the hawking season the hawks are on their fists in the open air many hours.
[640]I have never seen a saker eat stones.
[640]I have never seen a saker eat stones.
[641]Ṣafrā, “yellow bile,” one of the four humours of the body.
[641]Ṣafrā, “yellow bile,” one of the four humours of the body.
[642]In the plains of India, hawks during the moult should not be so gorged, at least not during the four or five months of hot weather. Hawks that are kept too fat will not moult properly. Further they should be fed only once in the day, and that in the morning. If gorged in the evening, their rest is affected, and they do not get the benefit of the slight coolness of the night.
[642]In the plains of India, hawks during the moult should not be so gorged, at least not during the four or five months of hot weather. Hawks that are kept too fat will not moult properly. Further they should be fed only once in the day, and that in the morning. If gorged in the evening, their rest is affected, and they do not get the benefit of the slight coolness of the night.
[643]I one year, in Kohat, India, tried moulting a young (chūz) peregrine in a large outhouse, high and roomy. The hawk did not moult at all, and frequently got so fat and heavy that she was unable to fly up to her perch until her food was reduced for a day or two. However, falconers in England recommend keeping a moulting hawk loose in a loft.
[643]I one year, in Kohat, India, tried moulting a young (chūz) peregrine in a large outhouse, high and roomy. The hawk did not moult at all, and frequently got so fat and heavy that she was unable to fly up to her perch until her food was reduced for a day or two. However, falconers in England recommend keeping a moulting hawk loose in a loft.