70 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



their power of endurance, and so naturally like plenty 

 of room in which to operate. Short-winged hawks, 

 on the other hand, usually hunt in wooded localities, 

 where they are better able to surprise their victims 

 than in the open. 



After the kite, the shikra (Astur badius) is the 

 commonest bird of prey in India. It is in habits and 

 appearance very like the common sparrow-hawk 

 (Accipiter nisus). So great is the resemblance between 

 the two species that " Eha," in his Common Birds 

 of Bombay, gives an excellent description of the 

 shikra under the title of the Indian sparrow-hawk. 



Although the two little hawks are so similar in ap- 

 pearance, ornithologists place them in different genera 

 on account of the considerably longer legs of the 

 sparrow-hawk proper and its heavily spotted and 

 blotched eggs, the eggs of the shikra being white and 

 almost entirely free from spots. 



The shikra is a slightly-built bird about the same 

 length as a pigeon ; its tail is half a foot long. The 

 upper plumage is greyish. The wings and tail are 

 heavily barred with black. The breast is white, with 

 large brown spots in young birds ; in old birds the 

 brown spots are replaced by a number of thin wavy, 

 rust-coloured cross-bars. The female, as is invariably 

 the case in birds of prey, is considerably larger than 

 the male, she being fourteen inches in length as against 

 his twelve and a half. But it is quite useless to attempt 

 to recognise a shikra, or indeed any other bird of prey, 

 from a description of its plumage. As " Eha " says : 

 " To try to make out hawks by their colour is at the 



