Jottings on common Indian Birds.



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there. I take it two Vultures seen near Chakrata were the Himalayan

Griffon (G. himalayensis) but that is merely a guess ; the birds were

pretty high overhead. Neophron gingiinianus, which is only a rather

smaller edition of the Egyptian Vulture ( N. percnopterus) walks

about the dirty villages like a fowl. We saw a good deal of the

Lammergeier. One day near Chakrata there were several on the

wing at once, including one splendid old male in perfect plumage

who came close over my head. Across the valley was a cliff where

they or other Vultures evidently bred; we could not actually see an

eyrie but could make out the ledges where nests probably were.

The rocks have been literally whitewashed by the birds.


After watching Vultures in various countries., one wonders

much at the old controversies about sight and smell. But though

it is clearly sight that does it, there are sometimes conditions which

show forcibly how amazingly acute that sight is. I shot a sambur

stag one day in the depths of the Nepal jungle, and had scarcely

had time to get down from my elephant before Vultures had arrived.

Now they could not have seen that animal, unless at least one

Vulture had happened to be directly above or looking down between

the trees ; for the trees were much too close together, and even then

it was a remarkable evidence of their quickness of eye.


An Eagle, probably the Tawny Eagle ( Aquila vindneana) was

seen on several occasions from the train, sitting on posts or beating

across the fields This is not a very noble bird, but is Buzzard-like

in its ways. A bird seen on the wing more than once was Palle’s

Fishing Eagle ( Haliaetus leucoryphus). I never saw it actually catch

a fish. It is a striking-looking bird, as in harrier fashion it beats

along the edges of the jhils.


Kites are almost inseparable from any memory of India.

There are two, one for the water, one for the land. The first is the

Brahminy Kite ( Haliastur Indus). As soon as you reach a port of

India you are pretty sure to see them from the deck of the ship.

It is a beautiful bird with its white head and neck and chestnut

body. A pair had their nest in a palm tree by the great lake under

the palace of Udaipur and added much to the interest of that

beautiful scene. The second is the Common Pariah Kite ( Milvus

govinda). One might write much about the bird, but it has all



