ACCIPITKES. 



FALCONID.E. 



AQUILINE. 



Genus MILVUS. 

 Bill longer and with the tip more hooked than in I/aliastur; festoon less prominent, the cere 

 more advanced at the sides. Nostrils moderately large, oval, and oblique. Wings very long and 

 pointed ; the 3rd and 4th quills the longest, and reaching nearly to the tip of the tail. Tail long 

 and forked. Tarsus short, the front and sides plumed considerably below the knee, the rest 

 covered in front with transverse scuta? and behind with hexagonal scales. Toes longer than in 

 Haliastur. Claws similar. 



MILVUS GOVINDA. 



(THE INDIAN PARIAH-KITE.) 



Milms govinda, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 81 ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 115 (1852) ; Layard, 

 Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 103; Schlegel, Mus. P.-B. Milvi, p. 2 (1862); Gould, 

 B. of Asia, part iv. ; Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 104 (18G2) ; Blyth, Ibis, 18GG, p. 248 ; Hume, 

 Rough Notes, ii. p. 320 (1870); Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 414; Hume, Nests and 

 Eggs, p. 52 (1873); Sharpe, Cat. Birds, i. p. 325; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 10; Hume, 

 Str. Feath. 1875, p. 229, footnote. 



Haliaetus lineatus, Gray & Hardw. 111. Ind. Zool. i. pi. 18 (young). 



Milvus cheela, Jerd. Madr. Journ. x. p. 71 (1839). 



Milvus ater, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 31 (1849). 



Common Kite, Black Kite, Jaffna Europeans ; The Cheela Kite, Kelaart's Prodromus. 



Chil, Hind. ; Malta Gedda, Tel. ; Paria Prdndu (ajmd Jerdon). 



Bajaliya, Sinhalese; Kalu-Prdndu, Paria Prdndu, Tarn, in Ceylon. 



Adult female. Length to front of cere 22-0 to 22 - 5 inches ; eulmen from cere 1/2 ; wing 17 - 5 to 18'0 ; tail 1O0 to 11-0 ; 

 tarsus 2-0 to 2 - 2 ; middle toe 1*5, its claw (straight) 07 ; height of bill at cere 05 ; expanse 55 - 5 (of an example 

 with a wing of 18 - 0). 



Adult male. Length to front of cere 21-0 to 22 - inches ; wing 1G-0 to 17'3 ; tarsus 2 - to 2-2. 



Iris light hazel-brown, sometimes tawnv, with brown radii and mottlings between them ; cere pale greenish, duskv 

 above; bill blackish, gape and base of under mandible bluish ; legs and feet whitish green, greenish yellow, or 

 pale yellowish ; claws black. 



Head and hind neck brownish tawny, the feathers slightly pale-edged, and each with a fine dark shaft-stripe ; on the 

 hind ne'ek the stripes expand slightly, and the ground-colour darkens into the glossy wood-brown of the back, 

 rump, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts ; upper tail-coverts paler than the back, and the margins of the feathers 

 of the foregoing parts slightly paler than the rest, those of the least coverts tawny ; median wing-coverts lighter 

 than the rest, the webs paling off from the shaft to fulvescent greyish at the edges ; primary-coverts, secondaries, 

 and shorter primaries dark brown, the latter somewhat paler on the outer webs ; longer primaries blackish brown, 

 the inner webs paling from the notch to the base, and the colour broken up with white interspaces and mottlings : 

 inner secondaries and adjacent tertials crossed with narrow blackish-brown bars, the interspaces being ashen, 

 paling to white on the shorter and innermost tertials; tail ashen brown, with a tawny hue near the shafts of the 

 feathers, and the laterals paling to whitish at the bases of the inner webs, the whole crossed with narrow bars of 



