Note 151 — Chapter XVI · THE SHUNQĀR OR JERFALCON

Shunqār. In old Persian MSS. on falconry, this disputed name is undoubtedly applied to a Jerfalcon, a species of which is said to exist in Northern Asia. The following is a footnote from Falconry in the British Isles:—

“We have been informed by travellers that some few large white falcons, which must be Greenland falcons, are caught annually on their passing over the Caspian Sea and that they are highly prized by the falconers of Syria and Persia.”

The late Sirdar Sher ʿAli Khan, the exiled Wālī of Kandahar, told the translator that he kept shunqārs in Afghanistan, and that he once had one that was pure white. Jerdon, quoting Pallas, states that it is the Baschkir Tartar name of the Jerfalcon. Also in Courteille’s Dictionnaire Turk-Oriental we find:—“Shūnqār, faucon, proprement le gerfaut.” Dr. Scully, however, in his Turki vocabulary of birds states that shunqār is the name of Falco Hendersoni, and ītālgū of its female. If the coloured illustration of F. Hendersoni (supposed by its describer to be identical with the shunqār) that was published in the account of the Government Mission to Yarkand be a correct representation of the original, then no falconer, however experienced, can discriminate between F. Hendersoni and many old charg͟hs (F. Cherrug or F. Sacer) caught annually in the Panjab. Further, the Turks of Persia call the charg͟h Ītālgū, Aitalgu, etc.