Indian Birds 



The Birds of Prey, 146-162 



This large family is composed of birds which 

 bear so strong a family likeness that it is almost 

 impossible to describe them in such a way as 

 to enable the reader to identify them at sight. 

 As with the owls, birds of prey are easily 

 recognised as such, but to name any particular 

 species baffles even professed ornithologists. 

 To try to make out the raptores by their 

 colour is, to use the words of Eha, " at the 

 best a short road to despair. Naturalists learn 

 to recognise them as David's watchman recog- 

 nised the courier who brought tidings of the 

 victory over Absalom. ' His running is like the 

 running of Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok.' Every 

 bird of prey has its own character, some trick 

 of flight, something in its figure and propor- 

 tions which serves to distinguish it decisively." 

 What precisely this something is I am not in 

 most cases able to state. I trust that before 

 long Mr. C. H. Donald, or some other Indian 

 falconer, will give us a little handbook on the 

 birds of prey of this country. For my part I 

 am able merely to attempt a description of two 

 or three of the very commonest forms. 

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