THE EAGLE-LIKE SUBFAMILY 1965 



Japan, and Formosa. The pariah kite ranges to elevations of about eight thousand 

 feet in the Himalayas, and abounds in every Indian city and village, where it per- 

 forms the same useful offices as does the black species in Egypt. These kites fre- 

 quently display the most astonishing familiarity and impudence; and the writer, 

 when in camp, has seen a portion of his dinner snatched from a plate carried by a 

 servant by one of these marauders. So numerous are they, that in Calcutta from 

 two hundred to three hundred may be seen together at a time; and when the white 

 ants are swarming, the air is sometimes almost darkened by the hosts of kites, 

 buzzards, and crows, which collect to prey upon the flying insects. Their Indian 

 name chil is given to them after their cry, which is a kind of long, tremulous 

 squeal. Jerdon describes the flight of the Indian kite as bold, easy, and graceful, 

 when the bird is once mounted aloft, although some heaviness is displayed in taking 

 wing. In the air the bird ' ' soars slowly about, in greater or less numbers, in large 

 circles. When in pursuit of another kite, it is capable of considerable speed, and 

 shows great dexterity in suddenly avoiding any obstacle and changing its course; in 

 this its long tail is a great help. Occasionally one may be seen dropping down 

 almost perpendicularly from the top of a house on a piece of offal in a narrow 

 street, but in general it reaches the ground from a height by a series of oblique 

 plunges." In the plains the breeding time lasts from January to April, although 

 most individuals lay in February. The nest, which is very similar to that of the 

 European species, is nearly always placed in a tree, and mostly in a fork. The 

 usual number of eggs is two, although there may be three, and rarely four. 



Distinguished from all its relatives, with the exception of an allied 

 T '1 dK't s P ec ^ es by its deeply-forked tail and extremely long wings, the 

 swallow- tailed kite of America (Elanoides furcatui) , with its striking 

 piebald plumage, cannot be mistaken for any other member of the family. This 

 bird, which is depicted on the right side of the illustration on p. 1956, may be com- 

 pared in size to the pariah kite, its total length being twenty-one inches. As 

 regards coloration, the entire head and neck, together with the hinder part of the 

 back and rump and the whole of the under surface are pure white; while nearly all 

 the rest of the upper plumage is black with grayish or purplish reflections in differ- 

 ent regions. The beak is dark steely blue, the iris dark reddish brown, and the 

 foot bluish white. 



The range of this handsome and dashing bird extends from the southern states 

 of North America to Colombia and Brazil, a few individuals being occasionally 

 blown across the Atlantic to the western shores of Europe. Of its habits, Dr. W. 

 I/. Ralph writes to Captain Bendire as follows: "Excepting perhaps the turkey 

 vulture, I think this bird is the most graceful of any while on the wing. It has the 

 same easy, floating motion, but at times it flies very rapidly and turns very quickly, 

 which is something I have never seen the former bird do. Their motions are very 

 swallow-like, and that, with their forked tails, makes them look like gigantic swal- 

 lows; and, like the chimney swifts, they have a habit of traveling together in small 

 companies, usually consisting of three individuals, especially when they first return 

 from the south. During the breeding season flocks consisting of from two or three 

 to ten or twelve birds, but oftener of three, may be seen following one another 



