225 
I have found the nests of these birds in the lower valleys. 
They contained one young, usually. I have never got the eggs; 
the young I have reared and kept tame about me. The parent 
birds often succeed in destroying Pheasants and bringing them 
to the nest. Snakes, Lizards and Frogs they are very fond of. 
A young tame one, kept along with two Athena Brahmas, one 
Carrion Crow, and three of the large green Woodpeckers (Gecinus 
Squamatus) killed and eat every one of the latter, although well 
supplied with other fresh meat.” 
Mr. Blyth remarks, that this species will probably be found 
to extend to all suitable localities, throughout the Indo-Chinese 
sub-region. 
“The true Cireaeti frequent dry open country, where they 
prey chiefly on Snakes and Lizards. The species of Spilornis 
are found more about wet places, where they subsist mainly on 
large Frogs (which they clutch in the mud) and on the more or 
less aquatic Snakes (as the Tropidonoti and Homolopsides) ; hence 
their feet are almost always more or less clotted with sediment, 
which may render them frequent agents for transporting to a 
distance the germs of aquatic organisms.” 
He adds, that it abounds in Lower Bengal and along the 
Terai at the foot of the Himalayas, and that Professor Schlegel 
notes it from China. “ Mr. Gurney observes that S. Orientalis, 
obtained by Mr. Swinhoe in Formosa, appears to be identical 
with S. Cheela, and that specimens from that. island. and from 
Northern India, are rather larger than those from Southern 
India, Siam, and the Malay peninsula.” 
With reference to this latter remark, I note, that Wallace, 
who gives this species as from Borneo, records the whole length 
at twenty-three inches ; the wing at fourteen, and the tail at 
nine. Can this be the same species as. ours with. a length of 
29; wing 21; tail 14inches? I have recently killed and most 
carefully measured several of these birds, and shall, to facilitate 
comparison, give the results further on. 
These specimens I obtained in the Saharunpoor district, 
along the Western Jumna Canal, where they are excessively 
common, and where in a morning’s walk three or four might 
be seen, sitting slouchingly, and kite-like, on branches about 
half way up the tree, not quite at the end of the branch, but 
about half way between the end and the trunk of the tree. 
All the specimens I obtained had eaten small Snakes; there 
were fully fifty little Serpents in the stomach of one, things 
scarcely bigger than large worms, and a gentleman who used 
to collect for me, sent me a specimen, that he had killed near 
Syree (below Simlah), along with the skin of a Cobra some two 
