VI 



THE TEESA 



BUTASTUR TEESA used to be called the 

 white-eyed buzzard, but one day a worthy 

 ornithologist discovered that the bird was 

 not the genuine article, that its legs and its 

 eggs betrayed the fact that it is not a true buzzard. 

 Therefore a new name had to be found for the bird. 

 In their search for this, naturalists have not met with 

 great success. Indeed, the last state of the bird is 

 worse than the first, for it is now known as the white- 

 eyed buzzard-eagle. To the adjectival part of the name 

 no one can take exception, because the white eye and 

 a whitish patch of feathers on the back of the head are 

 the most remarkable features of a rather ordinary- 

 looking fowl. The name " buzzard-eagle," however, 

 is most misleading. Although, as I have previously 

 had occasion to state, eagles are not quite the noble 

 creatures the poets have made them out to be, to 

 suggest that Butastur teesa is one of them is to insult 

 the whole aquiline community. Eagles, notwith- 

 standing the fact that they sometimes eat carrion, 

 attack, each according to the size of its talons, quarry 

 of considerable size, and are, in consequence, the 



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