THE BRAHMINY KITE 
HE Brahminy kite (Hakastur Lindus) is a 
puzzle to naturalists. Its habits are ob- 
viously those of a kite, but it looks too fine 
a bird to be a scavenger; it seems too 
well dressed to be a performer of Nature’s dirty work. 
Hence the bird used formerly to be placed among the 
sea-eagles. 
Nowadays, naturalists seem inclined to dethrone it 
from its former high position, to regard it as an ass in 
a lion’s skin, and to declare that, although it has the 
colour of the eagle, which, according to.Shelley, “sits in 
the light of its golden wings,” it is but a scavenger. 
However, the question is not yet decided. One is at 
liberty to regard the bird, either as a degraded eagle, or 
a glorified kite. Blanford declines to commit himself, 
and in this he is perhaps wise. He says: “ Halastur 
has been classed alternatively with the sea-eagles and 
with the kites, and is allied to both.” 
But the systematic position of the bird is after all 
not a matter of great importance. Let us leave orni- 
thologists to squabble over this, while we take a look 
at the bird and study it as it is. 
It is one of the commonest birds in Madras. Let me 
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