THE KITE. 121 



Milvus melanotis, as one sees him at Darjeeling, is 

 certainly a finer bird altogether than our Calcutta cockney, 

 but both are thrown into the shade by another common 

 Calcutta resident, the Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indue). 

 Tt is rather an insult to class this bird with the kites, for he 

 is, at all events, of a much better jat, as his name implies, 

 though Tommy, having converted the same name into 

 "Bromley-kite," applies it to the common pariah bird. 

 In his first plumage, indeed, the Brahminy Kite is very 

 like the adult pariah, but may be easily distinguished by 

 his rounded tail the other's being forked in the old and 

 square in the young and by "a certain indefinable 

 style." When he becomes adult, however, there is no pos- 

 sible confusion, the Brahminy 's brilliant chestnut, set off 

 by black quills and a white head, being quite unique among 

 Indian birds of prey. To see the Brahminy one has 

 usually to go down the Hooghly, for he is not much of a 

 town bird, though I used to see one not unfrequently at 

 the Museum tank. He is said to be a bolder bird than 

 the common Kite, and to rob this bird of its prey. Other 

 birds fear him little as a rule, however ; I have seen one 

 perched on a bush with several paddy-birds, and a king- 

 fisher has been known to "wipe the eye" of a Brahminy 

 in the matter of a fish the latter was stooping to sei/e. 

 In this case, however, the small bird paid dearly for his 

 impudence, for the indignant bird of prey vindictively 

 hunted him down and devoured him alive ! 



The Brahminy reminds one rather of the American Bird 

 o' Freedom, and indeed he is rather a dwarf sea-eagle than 

 a Kite. Curiously enough there are no Kites, properly so 



