THE BIRDS OF PRE1\0F THE PUNJAB. 1015 



Habits, etc. This fine bird is common on all our Punjab Rivers 



• and is frequently met with on large jheels and 



tanks, on the plains of N. India. Its rancous call, 

 resembling ungreased cart wheels, can be heard for 

 very long distances and not a few legends are 

 woven round this species in the lower hills. 



Fishermen, to whom this species is very familiar, 

 . in some parts of the country, firmly believe that 

 the species gives birth to two absolutely separate 

 species of birds. The light coloured youngsters 

 remain light coloured all their lives, and turn into 

 the Steppe Eagle {Bvyya Ookhab) while the dark 

 oues take after their parents ! 



Fishermen, as a class, are fairly observant and 

 yet strangely enough they do not appear to have 

 observed the fact that the young of Pallas's Fishing 

 Eagle are always light coloured, so the species 

 should very soon die out. 



In parts of the Kangra District the " Kurl and 

 Kurli " are responsible for the distribution of the 

 rain. The nest, which uobodj' has ever seen, is 

 placed on a very high cotton tree and if it rains 

 when the " Kurli " is sitting on her eggs, it is not 

 likely to stop for weeks, whereas if the " Kurl " is 

 sitting when the rain begins, it means light rain and 

 fine weather to follow. " Kurli bursta " is a house- 

 hold word in the district. 



This latter is a curious legend in the district 

 for the simple reason that the " KurV is by no 

 means a common bird except where the River 

 debouches on to the plains in the extreme end of the 

 district. 



That the nest is placed on a high cotton tree is very 

 often correct, but though it may never have been 

 seen by the Kangra man, every fisherman in the 

 lower reaches of the river is very familiar with it. 

 Most Kangra men are very uncertain as to whether 

 the Kurl and Kurli are Pallas's Fishing Eagle or the 

 Osprey, and both birds have been pointed out to me 

 as "Kurl". 



This is a very powerful bird and does not hesitate 

 to attack and rob any of the true Eagles for tit bits, 

 except the Golden, which, of course, it probably never 

 meets. I have seen as many as five at one time 

 following in the wake of fishermen, as they hauled 

 their nets through the river. They sit about on 

 convenient trees, or even on the ground and wait for 

 the haul to be brought to the bank, and are off with 

 any fish that happens to be left a little away from the 

 men. 



This Eagle will not go under water after its prey, 

 like the Osprey, but it will take one within six inches 

 or so below the surface and Mr. Hume records taking 

 a fish from one of these Eagles, weighing 13 lbs. 2 

 ozs. which the bird had succeeded in carrying right 

 across the river. 



