KITES. 20l 



sure to be on the lookout for the small fry. They dispute the ownership of a 

 bone with the lean pariah dog, or pick up refuse floating down the river ; they 

 hover over the farmer as he ploughs his held, and are the dread of a village from 

 the number of chickens they pilfer. The nest is built in the top of a palm-tree, 

 where the Nubians catch them in traps baited with pigeons." 



In India and the Himalaya the black kite is replaced by the smaller 

 pariah or govind kite (M. govinda), the chil of the natives, distinguished by the 

 well-marked patch of white at the base of the primaries. There is, however, in 

 India another and larger species (M. melanotis), measuring upwards of 25i inches 

 in length, against 20 in the smaller species, and also distinguished by some differ- 

 ences in coloration, this larger species ranging eastwards to China, Japan, and 

 Formosa. The pariah kite ranges to elevations of about eight thousand feet in the 

 Himalaya, and abounds in every Indian city and village, where it performs the 

 same useful offices as does the black species in Egypt. These kites frequently 

 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. 

 Swallow-Tailed Distinguished from all its relatives, with the exception of an 



Kite - allied species, by its deeply-forked tail and extremely long wings, the 

 swallow-tailed kite of America (Elanoides furcatus), 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. 193, may be compared 

 in size to the pariah kite, its total length being 21 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 greyish or purplish reflections in different 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 



