THi: llArKUiES OF TILE PUNJAB. 23:'. 



as tliongli a small piece had been cut out on either side, where thn 

 tail feathers touch the tertiary wini^" quills, and the tail itself 

 jirojects just the least bit beyond the line ot" the wiuos. 



I will endeavour to show the difTerence between the flights of" 

 the various genera later on in this paper. It is not too much to 

 say that it is very often easier to identify a bird on the wing than 

 it is, at a casiial glance, in the hand. 



The nomenclature in every case is the same as that given in 

 the Fauna of Br. India (Blanford) but I have sub-divided the 

 Families and Sub-Families into " Types " and have changed the 

 sequence of the genera as giveii in ihe above book, to suit the 

 purposes of my " Types."' 



To give an example as to how the ke}s are worked, let us 

 imagine we have got a specimen of some large llaptores which we 

 wish to identify. Look at the following points : — 



A. Has it got feathei's on its head and neck or only down? 



Feathers, well it cannot be a A'ulture, so we can leave 

 out of count Type " C." 



B. Examine next its legs ; has it got a feathered tarsus, i.e., 



does the feathering extend to the base of the toes, back and 

 front ? It does, so the specimen must come under Type "'D," 

 therefore it must be either a true Eagle, a Lammergeyer, 

 or Hawk Eagle, but which ? Next you look at the wing. 

 Fold the wings against the body in the same waj* as 

 the bird would naturall}^ have them when sitting down 

 and see if the longest primary quills reach to Avithin an 

 inch or less of the tip of the tail. You find they do and 

 that the hind q\i\\\ (without the toe) is the longest claA\', 

 so you straight away eliminate all the Hawk-Eagles and 

 know that your specimen must be a true Eagle and 

 belong to the genus A'piila. 

 You have thus got rid of 24 genera and some 50 species and have 

 now onl}- got 5 species to go through and that will be found as 

 simple as arriving at the genus, and jow proceed as follows : — 



.1 . Look at the nostril and see whether it is elliptical or ear- 

 shaped and higher than broad, or if it is round and as 

 broad as high. You find it to be distinctly elliptical and 

 higher than it is broad, so it cannot be that of ^. macukda. 

 II. You next measure the length of its tarsus and find it to be 

 just 4" so you know that it cannot be either an Imperial 

 (A. heliaca) or a Tawny (/I. vindhiaud) and must be 

 either a Golden (A. chri/saehis) or a Steppe Eagle (A. 

 hifasciata) . 

 (.'. Having arrived at this conclusion you next look at its foot 

 and claws. A huge foot, in which the claws are capable 

 of meeting round your wrist, and the hind clav.- well over 

 10 



