of the Calcutta District. 65 



I have known a pair attempt to breed in an old nest of 

 Corvus macrorhynckus, and another pair succeeded in bringing 

 up their brood in a nest of Pseudogyps hengalensis, in which 

 the Vultm'es had already reared a young one the same year. 

 It not unfrequently happens that one young bird is much 

 forwarder than the others^ and therefore leaves the nest some 

 time before them. If a nest has been once robbed the birds 

 often lay again in it. Building materials are sometimes 

 carried to the nest in the claws as well as in the beak. Every 

 evening numbers of these birds fly across the Hooghly from 

 the Earrackpore side to roost in the casuarina-trees near the 

 church at Serampore^ while others find roosting-places in 

 some of the high trees on the Trunk Road outside Barrack- 

 pore Park. During a flight of locusts which visited the 

 district in November 1890, hundreds of Pariahs, Brahminy 

 Kites, and Crows pursued the insects, snatching them in their 

 claws and devouring them on the wing. 



101. Elanus ciERULEUs. (Black-wiuged Kite.) 



A resident species, but not common. I wounded one — 

 I mistook it for a Tern, as it somewhat resembles one on 

 the wing — which flew some distance before it fell ; but 

 directly it dropped it was pounced on successively by a 

 Brahminy Kite, a Pariah, and a Changeable Hawk-Eagle, each 

 of which in turn attempted to carry it off. Although they 

 each succeeded in carrying it up several times, the plucky 

 little bird compelled them, by struggling and fighting so 

 fiercely, to relax their hold, until I had run up and driven 

 the birds off. It sometimes hovers like a Kestrel, but its 

 wings are not used so stiffly as that Hawk^s. 



They are usually seen in the more open country, especially 

 round the edges of the large j heels or among scattered trees 

 in the open grass-jungle. 



102. Pernis ptilorhynchus. (Crested Honey-Buzzard.) 

 A permanent resident, sparingly distributed throughout 



the wooded parts of the district. 



In 1890 a pair of these birds built a nest in a high 

 casuarina-tree in a compound at Titaghur, and though the 



SER. VI. VOL. VI. p 



