ON FEEDING ON JERBOAS DURING THE MOULT
You must know that during the moult there is no food so good, for both
short-winged and long-winged hawks, as the flesh of the two-legged
rat, called by the Arabs _jarbūʿ_[651] (jerboa). In the absence of
these rats you must catch house-mice.[652]
Let your hawk eat her fill of the antelope-rat,
For where is the food that is better than that?
The flesh is particularly good about two or three months before
Autumn,[653] that is, when your hawks are half-moulted, having three
to four flight-feathers of each wing uncast. At this season the jerboa
is very fat, and hawks find its flesh palatable.
The properties of the jerboa’s flesh are:—First: it keeps your hawks
in perfect health; for, though the weather is hot, the flesh of the
jerboa is cold. Rip open the belly of one newly killed and put your
fingers inside; you will find that, unlike all other beasts and birds,
which, when newly killed, are hot inside, the jerboa is cold. Second:
every feather of your hawk that draws its nourishment from the flesh
of the jerboa will be strong and pliant, and will last till the next
moult without fear of breaking; for such feathers have the pliability
of a spring. I say this from experience; for I once saw a gazelle,
when the _bālābān_ bound to its head, trip and fall, and roll over and
over with the hawk for twenty or thirty paces. The hawk’s wing- and
tail-feathers were badly bent and bruised.[654] However, I restored
them all with the help of warm water; not one was broken. Third: the
fur makes your hawk cast twice daily. (If you can feed your hawk twice
daily, morning and afternoon, on the jerboa with its fur, so much
the better; if not, feed her on this flesh once, in the afternoon).
Fourth: at the end of the moult there is a very fine and powdery bloom
on the feathers; it is as though a delicate powder had been sprinkled
on them. Fifth: it is an excellent tonic for a sick hawk, as, please
God, I will explain later on.
FOOTNOTES:
[650] This is not the experience of Indian falconers. In a wild state
peregrines moult late; doubtless the duties of maternity retard
moulting. I have twice caught healthy haggard peregrine “falcons” at
Christmas that still had an unshed flight-feather.
[651] Properly _yarbūʿ_.
[652] _Mūsh-i k͟hānagī_: _mūsh_ is either a rat or a mouse; however,
rats, except field rats (jerboas, etc.) are not found in Persia.
(Doubtless ship rats are found in the _ports_.)
[653] The Persian Autumn is supposed to commence in the end of
September.