386 Mr. W. E. Brooks's Stray 



tliere were two species, and he has not described the lesser 

 one at all, which, if not identical with Milvus affinis, as Mr. 

 Gurney once supposed, requires a name; and this, I am afraid, 

 would have to be the very inappropriate one of Milvus 

 palustris, Anderson, applied to immature examples of the 

 lesser Indian Kite {vide Pr. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, July 1873, 

 pp. 142-147). I wish all ornithologists who are interested in 

 this subject would carefully weigh what I have advanced, 

 and would iu future forbear to apply the term govinda to a 

 Kite to which it is clearly inapplicable. 



Mr. Hume has often insisted that there were three species 

 of Kite in India ; but I think this is a mistake, for both the 

 larger and the lesser Kites are very variable as to size. The 

 lesser one, M. affinis as I term it, is also very variable in its 

 plumage, which ranges from uniform sooty brown to warm 

 reddish brown, and much spotted. In Cashmere, the large 

 Kite, M. govinda (the M. melanotis of Messrs. Gurney and 

 Hume), abounds; and I had very good opportunities, when 

 there, of observing its habits. I took its eggs also in Cash- 

 mere : they closely resemble those of M. affinis, but are 

 slightly larger. 



And now that I have touched upon Indian birds, I should 

 like to add a few corrections respecting some of them. In 

 the first vol. of the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, 

 Mr. Sharpe does not admit the distinctness of Aquila ful- 

 vescens, Gray and Hardwicke, from A. vindhiana (footnote, 

 p. 243) . A good many examples of this fine Eagle have been 

 obtained, and it is now known in its different stages of plumage, 

 which are quite distinct from those of other Eagles. The barred 

 or non-barred tail is of little consequence; but the style of 

 barring on the tails of A. vindhiana and A. fulvescens, when 

 barred (which they sometimes are very slightly), is quite differ- 

 ent, theone beingdiagonalandthe other square across. Besides 

 this we have a circular nostril in A. fulvescens, and an oblong 

 one in A. vindhiana and A. rapax. However, A. fulvescens 

 is well able to speak for itself as to identity, and I shall 

 let Mr. Sharpe alone till the British Museum has an example 

 of this rare Eagle. It had not one when I was there, and 



