72 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



upon a little striped squirrel. Some crows were 

 witnesses of the feat, and at once proceeded to attack 

 the shikra so vehemently that it let go of the squirrel, 

 which made good its escape. The crows, let me add, 

 were not actuated by philanthropic motives. Their 

 object was, not to liberate the squirrel but to make a 

 meal of it. They were quite as disappointed as the 

 shikra when the little rodent regained its liberty. 



Natives of India frequently hawk with the shikra, 

 setting it on to partridges, quails, and mynas. It is 

 very easily and quickly trained. Within a week or 

 ten days of capture its education is complete. How- 

 ever, hawking with a shikra is, in my opinion, very 

 poor sport, for the shikra makes but one dash at its 

 quarry, and at once desists if it fails to secure it. 

 The hawker holds it in his hand and throws it like a 

 javelin in the direction of its quarry. While waiting for 

 its victim it is carried on the hand in the same way as a 

 merlin is, but is never hooded. It is only the dark- 

 eyed hawks that have to be hooded ; they seem to be 

 much more excitable than the light-eyed ones. A 

 trained shikra is very tame and does not show any 

 objection to being handled. 



The shikra nests from April to June, building, high 

 up in a lofty tree, a nest which can scarcely be de- 

 scribed as a triumph of avine architecture. Hume says : 

 " These little hawks take, I should say, a full month in 

 preparing their nest, only putting on two or three 

 twigs a day, which they place and replace, as if they 

 were very particular and had a great eye for a hand- 

 some nest ; whereas, after all their fuss and bother. 



