34 JUNGLE FOLK 



shadow of desolation as it goes, its wings scatter fears on 

 either side ; silence precedes it and gloom pursues." 



Small birds fear the hawk and despise the teesa, 

 because they know that the former is as swift and 

 energetic as the latter is slow and lazy. But it is not 

 easy to understand why the white-eyed buzzard does 

 not prey upon wild birds, because its wings are, in 

 proportion to its size, longer than those of most birds 

 of prey. It is not that Btitastur considers birds unfit 

 to eat. On the contrary, says Mr. C. H. Donald, ** that 

 he would love to catch a bird for his dinner is proved 

 bj^ the fact of his coming down to a bird behind a net 

 as soon as he sees it, but I suppose experience has 

 taught him that it is no use his trying to catch one 

 in its wild state, and in full possession of its wings and 

 feathers, and, consequently, he never tries." Thus, 

 we have no alternative but to regard the white-eyed 

 buzzard as a degenerate, a bird that might starve in 

 the midst of plenty. 



When a hungry Butastur sees flitting all around him 

 potential meals in the shape of small birds, his feelings 

 must be akin to those of the impecunious man in the 

 comic song who, as he contemplates the insurance 

 poHcy on the hfe of his shrewish wife, cries out : " Stone 

 broke with fifty quid staring me in the face ! " The 

 white-eyed buzzard has perforce to feed upon very 

 humble quarry, upon the creeping and crawling things, 

 upon beetles and insects, with an occasional rat or 

 frog. His usual method of capturing his prey is very 

 similar to that of the shrike, or butcher-bird, or, to 

 come nearer home, to that of the true buzzards. He 



