1872.] W. T. Blanford— On Birds from Sikkim. 153 



alpine and sub alpine parts of the country, but as the fauna of the Sikkim 

 pine forests differs entirely from that of the warm valleys, I have restricted 

 the notes in my other paper to the former. 



[The numbers prefixed to the birds refer to those in Jerdon's Birds of 

 India.] 



56«. Mn/yus melanotis, Temm. and Schl. 



Fauna Jarponica, Aves, PI. iv and v. 



Milvus major, Hume. Rough notes, Pt. I, p. 326. 



After comparing a good series of specimens from the G-odavari valley 

 with Temminck and Schlegel's figures and description in the Fauna Japonica, 

 I have come to the conclusion that Mr. Hume's first idea, J. A. S. B., 1870, 

 p. 114, was correct, and that the large Indian kite is identical with the 

 Japanese. Mr. Hume has evidently been misled by Badde and Schrenk, 

 who identify M. melanotis with M. migrans, and he especially mentions 

 (p. 325) that he has not access to the original description or measurements. 

 Of course a bird only as large as M. migrans would be much smaller than 

 M. major. 



In the Fauna Japonica, however, it is expressly stated that M. melanotis 

 is as large as M. regalis, but distinguished by the tail being less deeply forked, 

 not more than in M. cetolius (i. e. migrans). The measurements given are ; 

 length 23 to 24 French inches, wing 17i to 18, tail 10i to 11, tarsus 2 r %-, 

 mid toe 1^. The sexes are said to differ in size. The above are the 

 dimensions of males of M. major, (the corresponding English measures 

 being, whig 19^, tail llf, tarsus 2f-,) and the adult female is considerably 

 larger. There is, therefore, an element of doubt in the identification, 

 because one of the birds described by Temminck and Schlegel is said to 

 be an adult female. But as it is admitted by everybody that there is 

 no distinction in the plumage, and as the male of Milvus melanotis clearly 

 ecuials the male of M. major in size, it appears to me more probable 

 that there has been a mistake as to the sex marked on one of the dried 

 skins examined by the European naturalists, than that two representatives 

 of M. regalis should be found in Eastern Asia. 



This magnificent kite appears to be more widely spread in India than 

 was supposed at first, and it is remarkable it should have been so long 

 overlooked. I obtained two specimens in Sikkim, one shot by Captain 

 Elwes's shikari at Tamlung, the other a young bird in the plumage described 

 at p. 327 of Mr. Hume's " Rough Notes" as that of a young female. The 

 wing measures 19 5 in., so the bird was probably a male. 



I have also in February and April of the present year 1871 shot Milvus 

 melanotis on the Grodavari near Bhadrachalam, about one hundred miles 

 north of Yelaur (Ellore). I obtained three specimens, one of them as late 



