Brian Houghton Hodgson

“ I have also seen the Chanwa pursue cuckoos and sparrows with uncommon energy, but I never witnessed it strike a bird in the air. Like the type of Circus, however, the Chanwa doubtless can, and sometimes does, seize its feathered prey on the wing. So that its manners are, upon the whole, sufficiently Fissirostral : perhaps as much so as its Raptorial affinities will admit of. Analogies and affinities are very fine abstract terms, which the quiet Orientals would be puzzled to deal with. ”

“ The Chanwa or black wing quests chiefly in the morning and evening, feeding upon small birds, insects and mice. It does not usually seize upon the wing, though its hunting be, for the most part, by continuous questing. Commonly it is seen skimming the cultivation, like a Circus, occasionally poising itself on the wing for the purpose of getting a distincter view of some mouse, small bird or insect which has stirred on its beat and upon which, when clearly perceived, it stoops perpendicularly with the speed of lightning. ”

“ All the digits have nearly the same thickness. The soles of the feet are full and rounded, soft and unbailed. The talons are sufficiently large, strong and acute; the inner and hind being equal; the central as long almost but feebler ; and the outer fore, much the smallest. All the talons are rounded below, but none of them are compressed.
The ear, as well as the eye, is very noticeably large; and the gape reaches to the centre of the eye or more. ”