MASON AND LEFROYi 20? 



banks where various crickets abound. As soon as the cricket ap- 

 pears the kite swoops down, taking the insect in its claws during 

 flight, and carries of! the cricket, devouring it as it flies. On flat 

 land the bird captures these insects on the ground not when in flight 

 only. 



1229. Milvus govinda. Common Pariah-Kite. As is well 

 known kites pick up garbage of all kinds, fragments of meat, and fish, 

 and generally the refuse of man's food. They are excessively bold and 

 fearless, and often snatching morsels off a dish en route from the 

 kitchen, and even according to Adams, seizing a fragment from a 

 man's mouth. At our sea ports kites find their daily sustenance 

 among the shipping, snatching scraps of refuse from the surface of 

 the water. Away from the haunts of man, some seek their reptile 

 food over the fields and hedgerows, or with the Brahminy Kites hunt 

 the edgss of tanks, rivers, and marshes, for frogs, crabs, and fish. 

 Now and then one will seize a chicken or wounded bird of any kind, 

 and Mr. Blyth mentionn that he once knew one to kill a full grown 

 hen. Mr. Phillips says it will carry off parrots and chickens. The 

 food of the kite is usually devoured on the wing, or if too large, 

 carried to the nearest house or tree. Jerd. B. I. I, 105-107. 

 Female kite kills a crow to feed its young one. Dewar B. P., 148, 

 Chickens. Bombay Gaz., Cutch, Vol. X, p. 58. Hawk (chil) 

 is said to eat corpses, Punjab Gaz., Hissar, 20. 



-A.s examiii ect 



10-3-07. 3 Gryllotalpa africana. 



Various kitchen scraps. 

 1-4-07. Remains of a chicken. 



16-4-08. 1 Mouse. 



Kitchen scraps. 

 16-4-08. 6 Chrotogonus sp. 



5 Brachytrypes achatinua. 



Kitchen scraps. 

 16^4-08. 1 Mouse. 



3 Frogs. 

 1 Lizard. 



Kitchen scraps. 



4-5-09. 9 Brachytrypes achatinui. 



1 Mouse. 

 1 Lizard. 

 4-5-09. 1 Mouse. 



