64 Mr. P. W. Munn on the Birds 



99. Haliastur INDUS. (Brahminy Kite.) 



Very common, universally distributed, and resident. 

 Among the shipping in the Hooghly, in Calcutta, they are 

 commonly seen lining the rigging with the Pariah Kites or 

 snatching garbage from the surface of the water. 



They assemble in great numbers at any spot where a 

 quantity of food attracts them, and during the hot season 

 they watch the drying up of the j heels and tanks attentively. 

 When the natives, in many of the jheels in the hot season, 

 are draining off the little remaining water in the pools and 

 tanks, and searching for fishes and shell-fish in the mud, 

 they are always attended by numbers of these birds, which 

 swoop down, frequently snatch up a fish from among the 

 crowd of people, and then, circling round overhead, devour 

 it on the wing. 



They breed in January and February, but most usually in 

 the latter month, and almost invariably build in cocoanut- 

 palms, especially in those groves of these trees which grow 

 around tanks in the native gardens in this district, and few 

 of these groves are without a pair of the birds breeding in 

 the palms. The nest is thin and loosely constructed of sticks, 

 sometimes slightly lined with grass or reeds, and the eggs 

 are usually two in number. 



They are a great nuisance to Snipe-shooters, for they wait 

 upon them and often succeed in carrying off wounded birds. 



Their cry is a querulous, cat-like wail. 



100. MiLvus GoviNDA. (Pariah Kite.) 



Exceedingly common everywhere. About the middle of 

 June all the Kites, both old and young, leave the district 

 entirely, and do not return again before the middle of August. 

 Two broods are sometimes reared in the year, and the earliest 

 date when I have seen signs of their beginning to build was 

 in September, and the latest in April, though the greater 

 number breed from November to February. Young birds 

 hatched about November 12 were perched on the edge of the 

 nest ready to fly on January 12 ; a week later the old birds 

 were again repairing the nest and a second brood was being 

 reared on March 14. 



