The Art and Practice of Hawking. E. B. Michell
repute, with hopeless inaccuracy. One of the authorities which is most often referred to gives the length of the female saker as 18½ inches, or the same as the peregrine, whereas every naturalist ought to know that the saker is a very much larger bird. On the other hand, the Royal Natural History (1895), coming much nearer the truth, says that “the female falls but little short of 25 inches, and the male measures more than 18½.” The proportions of this hawk, excepting the feet, do not differ greatly from those of the ger, although the colourings and general appearance are completely dissimilar. The weak point, from the falconer’s point of view, is the smallness of the feet and shortness of the middle toe, as well as the poor quality of the feathers, which have about them none of the glossy smartness so noticeable in the ger and the peregrine.
Young birds have the crown and nape buffy white, lighter on the forehead and over the eyebrows, and in other parts profusely streaked with dark brown. The upper plumage is a rather dull dark brown, with fulvous and rufous buff edgings. The tail, excepting the deck feathers, is marked with irregular oval spots, which range themselves into a sort of band. There is a distinct moustachial stripe. The under parts are buff-coloured, liberally streaked with splashes of dark brown, especially on the flanks; but the buff colour grows lighter on the upper parts, and at the chin becomes nearly white. The cere, legs, and feet are pale bluish or greenish grey.
In adults the head becomes much lighter, and sometimes dull white, but with a more or less rufous brown tint and streaks of darker colour. The upper parts are dull and rather pale brown, the feathers margined, and in some parts barred, with light fulvous buff. The flight feathers are faintly barred with a lighter brown, and all the tail feathers barred with light buff. The sides of the face, chin, throat, and breast are nearly white, the latter being spotted rather than streaked with brown, but not transversely barred. The moustachial streak fades away. The cere, feet, and legs assume a more or less pronounced yellow colour.
The saker is a tolerably common bird throughout almost the whole of Central and Southern Asia, and is there very highly valued for practical purposes. It was also largely imported into Western Europe in the Middle Ages, and later it was used even in France and England for the flight at kites. It is for this fine sport that it is now chiefly prized in India. The list of quarry taken by this very serviceable hawk is extremely large, and includes, besides the various kinds of tropical kites, hubara, or bustard, herons, black ibis, ducks, and a whole host of smaller birds. The flight at the short-eared owl is especially fine, and the quarry often rings, and attains to a very great height before the saker can get up. The female saker will take hares well, and also ravine deer.
The tiercel of the saker is more properly called a sakret, sakeret, or sackeret. This hawk is the largest of those called desert-hawks or desert-falcons.
Lanner (Falco lanarius)
Female—Length, 18 inches; wing, 13.3; tail, 7.2. Male or “Lanneret”—Length, 16½ inches; wing, 12; tail, 6½.
The dimensions of this desert-hawk do not differ widely from those of the peregrine, but the feet are much smaller, and the tail longer. The feathers are of an inferior quality, and the light colour of the head prevents all risk of confusion. The wings are slightly longer and heavier. Young birds have the whole back up to the nape of the neck and down to the tail coverts dark brown, each feather tipped with a lighter and more rufous brown. Wing and tail feathers darker brown, narrowly tipped with rufous buff. The deck feathers are plain, but the others are barred with lighter brown on the upper surface, and with dull brownish grey bands of two shades underneath. The crown of the head is light greyish buff, with narrow streaks of light brown. The lower plumage is more or less dull white, very variously marked in different individuals, but generally with longitudinal splashes of more or less dark brown. The change to the adult plumage is not very marked. The breast markings do not change to transverse bars; but some old birds have the brown markings so arranged as to appear like irregular bars. These markings, however, generally become very sparse, and often disappear entirely on the throat and upper breast. The upper plumage alters to a slatey brownish grey, most of the feathers being barred with a darker brown, and still tipped with a rufous line. The cere and feet change from a bluish to a yellowish grey.
The lanner is common in North Africa, as well as in Central and Southern Asia, and is very frequently trained and flown in all these parts of the world. It was also formerly very largely imported into England, and used chiefly for game-hawking. It enjoys, nevertheless, anything but a good character. The old English writers describe it as “slothful and hard mettled,” and of an “ungrateful disposition,” while the French characterise it as vilain and rebelle. The Indian and Afghan falconers get it, as well as the saker, into condition by frequent physicking; and the list of drugs formerly used for it in England is of portentous length. In modern times the dosing of this as well as other hawks is imperfectly understood by European falconers; and the lanner is consequently in most cases a disappointing bird. When thrown off, she flies in a heavy style, and only after considerable delay will begin to mount. Very often, too, she will not mount at all, but go to perch on a tree, or even on the ground. She is apt to rake away and check at pigeons, plovers, and what not, and to be dull and obstinately slow at coming to the lure. To ensure obedience she must be fed a good deal upon washed meat, and that in moderate quantities, her appetite, like that of all the desert-falcons, being apt to grow slack on the least overfeeding. The lanner is very partial to mice, and in the wild state appears to devour lizards and other reptiles. She is not, therefore, at all particular as to diet, and may be regaled with coarser food than the nobler falcons.
Once properly conditioned, however, and “on her day,” the lanner—or for that matter the lanneret, as the male is called—is a useful and deadly hawk. Both sexes will kill partridges freely, not waiting on so often when the quarry has put in as taking perch on a neighbouring tree, and waiting, like a sparrow-hawk, to start from there. The female has also been known to take wild-duck well, and will wait on, when she likes, at a stupendous height. For magpies the lanner would hardly be quick enough. Pheasants can usually be taken by the females at the first stoop. It is said that the Arabs fly the lanner at small gazelles and a kind of bustard, which it stoops at whenever it takes wing, and without actually striking it, frightens it on to its legs, so that it can be run down with hounds. This bird has the faculty of ejecting a slimy matter from its mouth and vent, which, if it reached the hawk, would incapacitate her from flying. Ringing flights are flown at a bird called the chakhah, resembling a golden plover; and the lanners which excel at this fetch a price equivalent to £50 or £60. The Arabs also fly the lanner at sand-grouse and francolin.
D’Arcussia declares that the sakers and lanners do better in stormy weather and high winds than the peregrine. Neither of them bear the heat well in temperate climates.
The South African Lanner (F. biarmicus) and the Tunisian Lanner, or Alphanet, are local species, having a more strongly rufous coloration than F. lanarius.
Lugger (Falco jugger)
Female—Length, 17 inches; wing, 13.6; tail, 8. Male—Length, 15 inches; wing, 12; tail, 7.
An Indian hawk, rarely found out of the peninsula. It is much used by the natives for a variety of quarry, and does a lot of useful work.
Eleonora Falcon (Falco eleonoræ)
Female—Length, about 15½ inches; wing, 13.3; tail, 7.5. Male—Length, about 13½ inches; wing, 11.8; tail, 6.5.
This is a hawk of the hobby type, much darker on the under parts, and with a good deal of black and rufous on the under surface of the wings. The feet are at first pale yellow, developing later into orange. The wings are long, but do not project, like the hobby’s, beyond the tail.
This hawk is common on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. It was observed and reported upon by Brooke in Sardinia, and Kruper in Greece, which latter observes that it is “a noble falcon, and was in early ages used for falconry.” I have not discovered the chapter or verse in which this use is mentioned; but the hawk is obviously quite big enough to be flown at partridges, if willing to go. Both the above-named naturalists maintain that its food consists principally of birds, and Dr. Kruper declares that he found in its nests the remains of six different kinds of bird, including quail and hoopoe. A specimen