Note 355 — Chapter XXIX · TRAINING THE T̤ARLĀN OR PASSAGE GOSHAWK

A good Indian falconer would carry his hawk after dark till she had “put over” completely, first allowing her an hour’s rest or more. “Carrying,” with its constant shifting of position, not only causes a hawk to “put over” quicker, but induces it to digest and empty the bowel: on the fist she will “mute” thrice for every twice on the perch. After a hard day’s work, water should be offered her at night, especially if she has been fed on the rich flesh of the hubara: after a feed on hubara flesh, I have known some sakers drink two or three times between nightfall and midnight. If a hawk has been fed late and is to be flown early next day, it should be taken on the fist before sunrise (a lamp being lit in the room) and “carried,” the hawk being made to change its position frequently: this induces it to “cast” earlier than it would otherwise do. When hubara-hawking all day long in the desert for ten or fifteen days at a stretch, my falconers would carry the hawks from 3 or 4 a.m. till daybreak, and the hawks (peregrines or sakers) would be ready to fly by 8 a.m. (A hawk “puts over” when it takes down any portion of the meat from its crop into its stomach). “Putting over” quickly is the sign of a good digestion.