THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
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This is never done in England, on account of the supposed cruelty of the operation ;
but I am convinced that there is little or no pain inflicted on the patient. The
eyelid itself is a piece of skin without veins, and almost bloodless. I have seen
the natives "seel" so many hawks, and with such good results, and so convinced
am I that it is the best way of treating a wild-caught hawk, that I should have no
hesitation in practising it myself. The hawk, utterly blinded for the time, sits per-
fectly still. The eyelids are allowed to be lowered little by little at the end of a
week, when the hawk will sit bare-headed on the fist in the open. Having seeled
your falcon, she is conveyed home as soon as possible, supplied with bells and
jesses, and handed over by your head "Bazdar" (falconer), to an understrapper,
whose duty it is thenceforth to devote his energies to the taming and training of
the falcon. This he does by continually carrying the falcon on his fist—night and
day—in the most crowded thoroughfares of the bazaar—letting it see and hear all
manner of strange sights and noises, all the while speaking to it, and stroking it,
and occasionally offering it a small piece of juicy beef or pigeon, until at length
the falcon begins to look upon man as not at all the enemy she at first supposed.
I have continually seen my "bazdar," old Wazir Khan, sit up with a new
falcon until two or three in the morning, and then be out with it again before six,
and carry it all day. There is no doubt that this constant carriage is the way to
tame hawks, and anyone who saw my falcons when they first came from India,
will remember how remarkably tame they were as compared with English-trained
falcons.
The rest of the falcon's taming and training is very much the same as
that already described by Mr. Mann—the only real difference being that, in
India, hawks and falcons are never taken young from the nest, as in England.
They are invariably caught wild in September, trained at once, and let loose
again in the following March or April, when the approaching hot weather
puts a stop to all hawking, and the Indian falconer releases all his hawks, except,
perhaps, a favourite "Shahin," or "Bhyree," which is sent up to the hills and
moulted. All the native falconers are paid off and discharged, and the master
betakes himself to Simla, or some other hill station, there to get out of the swelter-
ing heat of the plains, and recruit his energies until the next autumn, when he
commences the campaign again with fresh hawks.
In India the wild fowl disappear entirely at the approach of the hot weather,
and cross the Himalayas far into the plateaus of Central Asia, where they breed in
immense numbers and stay until the autumn rains have again filled all the tanks
and "jheels" of India. They return about the beginning of September, crossing
the mountain ranges that border India on the north, and gradually spread south-
ward. There, too, may be seen the "Bhyree" and "Shahin," following in their
wake, like a cohort of free lances on the outskirts of a retreating army. When
the wild fowl leave in the spring, the hawks retreat from India and build their nests
in the inaccessible cliffs and mountain passes of Northern Afghanistan, to return
when the duck comes south. Besides wild fowl, the "Bhyree," in India, is flown
at the Black Ibis, Heron, Crane, Houbara (a species of Bustard), and occasionally
at Hare, while the Shahin is kept almost exclusively for Teal, although they
will show good sport with all kinds of game fowl.
The "Cherrug" and the "Lugger" both leave the plains during the breeding
season, and are hardly ever kept to moult, as the natives say, and with truth, that
if they are kept through the hot weather they become slow on the wing, and are
not worth their salt.