THE BRAHMINY KITE 



THE Brahminy kite {Haliastur lindus) is a 

 puzzle to naturalists. Its habits are ob- 

 viously those of a kite, but it looks too fine 

 a bird to be a scavenger ; it seems too 

 well dressed to be a performer of Nature's dirty work. 

 Hence the bird used formerly to be placed among the 

 sea-eagles. 



Nowadays, naturalists seem inclined to dethrone it 

 from its former high position, to regard it as an ass in 

 a lion's skin, and to declare that, although it has the 

 colour of the eagle, which, according to Shelley, "sits in 

 the light of its golden wings," it is but a scavenger. 

 However, the question is not yet decided. One is at 

 liberty to regard the bird, either as a degraded eagle, or 

 a glorified kite. Blanford declines to commit himself, 

 and in this he is perhaps wise. He says : " Haliastur 

 has been classed alternatively with the sea-eagles and 

 with the kites, and is allied to both." 



But the systematic position of the bird is after all 

 not a matter of great importance. Let us leave orni- 

 thologists to squabble over this, while we take a look 

 at the bird and study it as it is. 



It is one of the commonest birds in Madras. Let me 



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