518 JO URNAL, BOMB A Y NA TUBAL HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Voh X. 



as it is technically called — is very important) by a sort of silver 

 sparkle about clutch or bill. It is seldom possible, accurately, to 

 distinguish the form of a wriggling fish in the grip of a flying bird. 

 The Phmtonidce^ or " Boatswain birds," prey like gulls with the bill. 

 The " Frigate birds " [Atiagen, Tachypetes^ Fregata) have their feet 

 modified, so as to be, to some extent, " clutches," and seem to take 

 their prey in both ways. About all these, however, it is to be hoped 

 that our author will shortly have more to say. What is necessary 

 at present is to warn our readers that a great many of them are as 

 big as sea-eagles, and to furnish, as far as may be, the means of 

 distinguishing them on the wing. Without this, no museum classifica- 

 tion can teach us their habits, and without observation of habits 

 Natural History is lifeless. We cannot shoot and identify every bird 

 we see. It may be said, in closing accounts with the sea-eagles, that they 

 are not at all, as a group, to be put below those of the land, in size, 

 beauty or manners. Perhaps, the finest ^' mount " of birds of prey 

 in the British Museum is one of a group of sea-eagles from the 

 North Pacific, worth going from Bombay to see. 



After Harriers come Buzzards (Buteo), a common name in misuse. 

 Buzzards are by no means " blind," and " Turkey Buzzards" are 

 neither Buzzards nor Turkeys, and do not live in Turkey, but in the 

 warm parts of America. They get their name from the general 

 resemblance to a Turkey of their dark plumage and bare red 

 face. For the same reasons, our "Pondicherry Vnlture" (Otogyps 

 calvus) is sometimes called a " Turkey Buzzard," which should be 

 discouraged. 



The true Buzzards are well described by our author as a sort of 

 weak, sluggish, and dwarfish eagles. His first bird, B, ferox^ we have 

 only in Sind, though it ranges from the Levant to Sikhim. The next, 

 B. leiicocephalusj we have not at all ; and the last, the common 

 Buzzard, very rarely as a cold weather visitor. It may occur, however, 

 almost anywhere in the Old World. 



The next genus, Archibideo, is not represented in our province. 



We are better acquainted with the Goshawks (Astur), the chief of 

 " the typical hawks." 



Astur palwnbainusj the true Goshawk, is a Palasarotic and Himalayan 

 bird, not visiting our province of its own free-will, but imported, at 



