CHAPTER XXIV
THE SANGAK[278]
This “falcon” closely resembles the Indian Sparrow-Hawk,[279] but the young bird is smaller and darker in colouration. Also it has not the dark stripe under the chin.[280] The only difference between the two is that the Sangak is black-eyed while the Pīqū is yellow-eyed.[281]
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”[282] that of a pīqū.
The “intermewed” bird and the nestling are identical in plumage, and cannot be distinguished from each other.
FOOTNOTES:
[278] I am unable to identify this hawk.
[279] Pīqū or pīg͟hū, the shikra of India.
[280] Usually present in the young as well as in the old shikra.
[281] Arzaq-chashm, properly “blue-eyed.” Young shikras have sometimes bluish grey eyes.
[282] “Imp to” is to repair broken flight- or tail-feathers by sewing in, “grafting,” etc.: for methods vide Badminton Library.