629 

 THE BIRDS OF PREY OF THE PUNJAB 



BY 



C. H. Donald, f.z.s. 

 Part II. 

 {With Flates I and 11.) 

 {Continued from jpage 265 of Volume XXVI.) 

 Types D & E. 



This chapter deals with the True Eagles, the Hawk-Eagles and the 

 Himalayan Rough-legged Buzzard, iu all 5 genera comprising 11 

 species. 



Type D takes into account all birds with a feathered tarsus, 

 with the exception of the Lammergeyer which has been placed in a 

 Type (C) by itself, on account of its beard, a characteristic which 

 it shares with no other species of the Raptores. 



Type E contains but one genus, and that genus is represented 

 by only one species, so far as India is concerned, and even that is 

 very rare. I place this bird (the Himalayan Rough-legged Buzzard) 

 in a type next to the Eagles because its tarsi are feathered, in front, 

 right down to the toes and I separate it from them because the 

 Eagles and Hawk-Eagles have their tarsi feathered back and front 

 whereas the Himalayan Rough-legged Buzzard has its feathered in 

 front only, and naked behind. 



Of the 11 species 3 are winter migrants and 5 are more or less 

 restricted to the Himalayan forests and not likely to be met with 

 in the plains, though all eleven are to be found in the Punjab. 



Perhaps the least well known of all the Order of Acciptres are 

 to be found among the larger Raptores. The ordinary man who has 

 to spend a certain number of years of his life in India, and whose one 

 thought is to get out of it as soon as possible, and whose interests 

 do not lie in the direction of the fauna of the country, does not worry 

 much about nomenclature and to him every bird he sees, provided 

 it is a big one, is either a vulture or an eagle, and it does not much 

 matter which. Our friend the Punjabi villager does not help us 

 either, for though he knows the difference between the vulture and 

 the eagle he calls them indiscriminately, " 111 " or " lUur ", and by 

 the time the seeker after knowledge has heard " 111 " or "Illur" 

 applied to some 4 or 5 different species, which he has not had much 

 trouble in identifying as being different to each other, whatever 

 they actually are, he has come to the conclusion that there is a pau- 

 city of names in the Punjabi dialect, or that all big birds one sees 

 are one and the same in different guises. The Sahib who calls every- 

 thing a vulture or an eagle takes the place of the old Punjabi among 



