512 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



when aittlng in a tree in the forest, if it wants, to make out the 

 position of its mate, or of fledged young. A party in such a place, 

 two old birds &nd one (or rarely two) young, will answer each 

 other from tree to tree for an hour together. They are not at all 

 exclusively Forest birds, bui '* usuall}^' found on trees near water, 

 especially the fine trees along irrigation channels and canals in Upper 

 India ; and along stream-beds " elsewhere. The under-plumage of 

 good specimens is ocellated in a very beautiful fashion, black and white 

 upon rich red-brown, so that a loose axillary feather, for instance, 

 makes one think at first rather of some new pheasant— or other spotty 

 game-bird—than of an eagle. These feathers are very effective in a 

 hat — in small number. The crest is not. When erected under 

 excitement it is like a short broad vertical fan, of equally short broad 

 fan-shaped head-feathers, black above and white near the base. The 

 white hardly shows in an angry old bird of full plumage. When in 

 fiightj or sitting quiet, the crest is folded back, and hardly visible, 

 or not at all, in Western India. The figure (p. 359) given in our book 

 represents a sort of intermediate semi-erected crest, which must be very 

 rare, if it is drawn from life at all. The contraction of the scalp in a 

 museum specimen would produce it easily enough. The size and 

 plumage vary greatly ; wherefore we had a lot of generic names for 

 this bird ; now happily despatched to the Limbo of vanity. The 

 variations of plumage occur even within very limited areas, such as 

 the basin of the Savitri, where the bird is abundant. That in size 

 . seems to be steadier ; it increases as you go north.. 



This bird likes to sit on a big limb of a large iree well inside, and 

 pretty lov.^ down., In such a position it will often allow a close 

 approach ; and sometimes startles a man, who has not been looking 

 for itj by flapping hurriedly off, as he passes a few feet below it. 

 The present writer once killed one with a pistol-ball, walking coolly 

 up to it. Yet it is not unable to stand the sun ; for a pair will circle 

 round each other, late in a hot weather forenoon, for a long time, 

 apparently just for pleasure, squealing to each other at intervals. 

 Perhaps it was this habit, characteristic of the Pariah kite (" cJdl "), 

 which led some native to give it that bird's name in conversation with 

 lis god-father, Latham^ over 100 years ago. The vague generality 

 of most native nameSj except those got from the forest tribe.s by 



