Note 461 — Chapter XXXIII · TRAINING THE EYESS SAKER TO EAGLES [461]

The Rev. H. B. Tristram writing on the ornithology of North Africa (Ibis 1859) mentions “eagles, kites and sand-grouse” as quarry flown at by the Arab Shaikhs. [Elsewhere the same writer says that the Lanner and Barbary falcon are flown at sand-grouse. No Indian falconer, however, has succeeded with the latter quarry: it is too fast, and the hawk and quarry soon disappear from view. The sand-grouse will not let the hawk get above it when the hawk is “waiting on.” Mr. Tristram does not mention what device or artifice the Arabs adopt.] The author of the Land and the Book (W. M. Thomson, D.D.) says of trained falcons, in chapter xxv, “they will even bring down the largest eagle in the same way....”