MILVINJS. HI 



Its crested head, the narrow nostrils, clothed lores, and even 

 the form of the bill, ally this curious form to Pernis. 



58. Baza lophotes, Cuv. 



Falco, apud Cuvier, and Tem., PL col. 10 — Blyth, Cat. 

 80— Horse., Cat. 72— Jerdon, 2nd Suppl. Cat. 15 bis— F. 

 Lathami, Gray — Buteo cristatus, Vieillot — Lophotes Indicus, 

 Lesson and Swains. — Baza syama, Hodgson — Syama in Nepal 

 Kohi of Parbutties. 



The Crested Black Kite, 



Descr. — Plumage above, with the fine long slender drooping 

 crest, thigh coverts, under tail coverts, and under wing 

 coverts, glossy green black ; outer webs of the secondaries deep 

 chestnut ; outer webs of the tertiaries white ; scapulars and some 

 of the coverts next them white internally, tipped chestnut, 

 forming a conspicuous interrupted white wing band ; beneath 

 white, with five or six broad bars of deep chestnut on the 

 sides of abdomen ; wings and tail beneath, pale plumbeous, 

 without any bars. 



Bill and legs plumbeous : irides dark brown. Length 1 3 to 

 14 inches ; extent 30 ; wing 9 ; tail 5. Tarsus 1^ ; mid-toe and claw 

 1-^ ; weight 8 oz. 



Hodgson states that young birds have the teeth of the bill not 

 well marked, only a festoon, and" that the feet are fleshy grey. 



This very handsomely-pluraaged kite is found, though spar- 

 ingly, spread through India, and certainly very rare towards the 

 south. I shot one specimen on the eastern coast, near Nellore. It 

 is occasionally killed at Calcutta, and is more frequently met with 

 in the lower Himalayas. It is almost entirely insectivorous in its 

 habits, and keeps to the forests or to well-wooded districts. It 

 takes only short flights, and certainly is not usually seen soaring 

 high in the air, as Mr. Gray says in his Genera of Bir-ds. It has 

 the power of erecting its crest quite vertically. 



A second species of this peculiar genus exists in the bird 

 named Lophastur Jerdoni'hy Blyth, from Malayana and the Isles, 



