CHAPTER XXIV. The Sangak[278]

THE SANGAK

This “falcon” closely resembles the Indian Sparrow-Hawk, but the young bird is smaller and darker in colouration. Also it has not the dark stripe under the chin. The only difference between the two is that the Sangak is black-eyed while the Pīqū is yellow-eyed.

In the jungle it preys chiefly on locusts and frogs, but occasionally kills a small wounded or diseased bird. It haunts “gardens,” and, like the hobby, nests in trees. However, it is a bird impotent and unvalued, except for its tail, which can be used for “imping” that of a pīqū.

The “intermewed” bird and the nestling are identical in plumage, and cannot be distinguished from each other.

FOOTNOTES:

I am unable to identify this hawk.

Pīqū or pīg͟hū, the shikra of India.

Usually present in the young as well as in the old shikra.

Arzaq-chashm, properly “blue-eyed.” Young shikras have sometimes bluish grey eyes.

“Imp to” is to repair broken flight- or tail-feathers by sewing in, “grafting,” etc.: for methods vide Badminton Library.