MILVUS GOVINDA. 81 



dark brown, more or less incomplete towards the margins ; tips of all but the two outer feathers whitish ; a line of 

 blackish above the lores, and over the ears a dark brown patch ; face greyish with the shafts dark ; beneath brown, 

 paling to tawny rufous from the lower breast to the under tail-coverts ; the centres of the feathers dark brown 

 and the shafts blackish, the web adjacent to the mesial stripes being somewhat paler than the margin ; margins 

 of the throat- feathers fulvous, and the basal portions of the webs whitish ; on the belly and under tail-coverts the 

 mesial stripes are wanting, the shafts alone being dark ; least under wing-coverts deep tawny, the feathers dark- 

 centred ; greater series blackish brown with tawny edges : primary under wing-coverts ashen-brown with dark 

 softened bands ; basal portion of the 2nd and 3rd quills beneath more or less whitish, the amount of white varying 

 much in individuals, some being quite as dark as M. affinis. 



Young. In the first, or nestling plumage, the head, back, rump, and wing-coverts are dark brown with a purplish 

 gloss, the feathers of the head and hind neck with terminal whitish-buff " points " or streaks, surrounding a shaft- 

 stripe darker than the rest of the feather ; those of the back and rump with terminal margins of a slightly more 

 rufous hue, the wing-coverts and tertials with much deeper tips of fulvous, passing with a rusty tint into the 

 brown, and surrounding a dark shaft-stripe ; primaries and their coverts blackish brown, tipped with fulvous, 

 slightly on the longer primaries, and deeply on the rest; the inner webs of the quills mottled with dusky greyish ; 

 tail obscure ashen-brown, tipped with fulvous and crossed with indistinct bars (as in the adult) of darker brown. 



Loral streak and postorbital patch darker, and the latter more extensive than in the adult ; throat and lower part of 

 cheeks fulvous, with narrow shaft-stripes of brown ; fore neck, chest, breast, and flanks brown, the centres of the 

 feathers rufous, enclosing pointed shaft-stripes of blackish brown ; on the lower parts the brown hue pales into 

 brownish fulvous, and the shaft-stripes disappear ; tibial plumes and under tail-coverts more rufous still ; under 

 wing-coverts dark chocolate-brown tipped with fulvous, the primary-coverts ashen-brown with the outer webs 

 whitish, as is also the edge of the wing ; basal portion of primaries beneath scarcely showing any white in some 

 birds, and in others even more than in old birds. 



In the following season the terminal margins throughout the upper surface are less conspicuous, and those of the baek- 

 and scapular feathers less rufous, the margins of the head- and hindneck-feathers, however, are often more 

 fulvescent, and the dark stripes on the latter part less conspicuous than in the nestling ; the tips of the secondaries 

 are likewise less in extent ; on the under surface the throat becomes more " lined," the streaks on the chest and 

 upper breast diminish, and their pale borders contrast less forcibly with them, while the ground-colour of these 

 parts is browner than in the youngest stage ; the amount of white at the base of the quills beneath varies, but it 

 is usually more extensive during this period. 



When not fully adult, the signs of nonage show themselves in the pale tips of the back, scapulars, and tertials, the 

 softened and less intense shaft-lines of the head and hind neck, and the pale borders of the dark chest-striae ; the 

 markings of the throat are variable at this stage, the shaft-lines being marked in some and faint in others, while 

 the ground-colour is at times conspicuously rufous ; the quills are quite untipped in these birds, and the lower 

 parts more rufous than in adults. 



06s. The difference of opinion among some ornithologists as to what Kites in India should be classed as M. govinda 

 and what as M. affinis makes it somewhat difficult to define what the Ceylon birds really are, as they present some 

 points of dissimilarity to the types of both these species. If typical M. affinis be represented by the small rufous- 

 plumaged Kite inhabiting the east coast of Australia and the Malay Archipelago, and M. govinda by the ordinary 

 brown-plumaged bird of the plains of India, having a certain amount of white (which, however, is a variable and 

 uncertain characteristic in Ceylon birds) at the base of the primaries beneath, then the Ceylon Kite has more 

 affinity with the latter than with the former. 



From M. affinis it differs, as an adult bird, in the less rufous coloration of the head, hind neck, and lesser wing-coverts, 

 and in youth in the less-rufescent character of the upper-surface tippings, a Macassar example being taken for 

 comparison. It is likewise a larger bird, the wings of six examples of M. affinis measuring as follows — (Sydney) 

 15-8, (Australia) 15-0, (Australia) 15-2, (Timor) 10-5, (Macassar) 166, (Timor) 16-5. As regards the pale markings 

 of the under wing, adults of M. affinis are on the whole darker than Ceylon birds, which, though quite as dark in 

 the young stage, are variable when mature. From the type of M. govinda in the India Museum, and similar 

 examples in the British and Norwich Museums, the insular bird differs in the more rufous edgings of the head- and 

 hindneck-feathers, the paler median wing-coverts, more cinereous tail, more conspicuous strialion of the upper 

 part of the throat, more ashy hue of the dark chest-stripes, and more fulvous colour of the abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts ; but though these differences are numerous, they are less appreciable than are those in the case of the 

 Australasian bird. The Ceylon Milvus is also a somewhat smaller bird than the Indian M. govinda, Sykes's type, a 

 female measuring 18-5 inches in the wing, and others I have examined 18'0, 17"8, 17 - 8 and 17"4, while Mr. Hume 

 gives the wing in five females as from 18 - 25 to 19-10. 



M 



