100 BAZA LOPHOTES. 



Habits. This "Baza" frequents forest or large tracts of jungle, and usually keeps to districts of no 



considerable altitude. It appears to be more gregarious than most Hawks; for with the exception of the 

 Kestrels and Kites, none seem to be so fond of each other's company. The little troop that I met with more 

 resembled Pigeons in their actions than birds of the hawk-tribe ; three were seated among the branches of one 

 tree and two others flew from branch to branch close by ; when I approached the whole made off witli short 

 flight from tree to tree, during which movement I dropped my bird. They had a quick irregular mode of 

 flyin°-, and with their white chests and handsome wings, contrasted against the grecu foliage, had a very unhawk- 

 like appearance. I notice, with regard to their sociability, that Mr. Inglis, in the " First List of Birds from 

 Cachar " (' Stray Feathers/ vol. v.), speaks of finding three in company with Bulbuls and King-Crows. Jcrdon 

 remarks that it is entirely insectivorous in its diet ; and a pair that Mr. Mitford met with near Ratnapura, 

 referred to by Layard in his notes, were catching bees on the wing, and also by darting at them as they issued 

 from their hive ; they sat on the dead branches of a tree, and raised and depressed their crests, and this they 

 have the power of doing vertically, like the Crested Swift (Dendrochelidon coronata). Layard's specimen had 

 a Lizard {(ktlotes viridis) in its stomach ; and one of my birds, which was shot by Mr. Chas. Byrde, sitting in 

 a jack-tree near the Rest House at Pasyala, had been feeding on Coleoptera. I know nothing of its note, nor 

 can I find any thing recorded concerning it. 



Jcrdon writes of it in the 'Birds of India': — "It is almost entirely insectivorous in its habits, and keeps 

 to the forests or well-wooded districts. It takes only short flights, and certainly is not usually seen soaring 

 high in the air, as Mr. Gray says in his ' Genera of Birds.' " 



Comparatively little is known concerning any of the Malayan members of this interesting genus, conspi- 

 cuous in which, for its singular and beautiful plumage, is the present species. It is therefore to be hoped 

 that naturalists in India and Ceylon will, when they have the good fortune to come upon it in their wanderings, 

 pay particular attention to its actions and habits, as far as their opportunity will permit of. 



