326 Conspectus of the Ornithology of India. [No. 4. 



Hab. India generally ; Malay countries : not rare in Lower 

 Bengal. 



Remark. This averages a rather larger size than the European 

 Pern, with the beak proportionally somewhat larger ; but in other 

 respects there is a great similitude in all the many varieties of plumage, 

 except that the Indian bird has an occipital crest more or less deve- 

 loped, sometimes to a length of above 2% in., though in many this is 

 short or even scarcely traceable. 



Subfam. ELANIN.E. 



Genus Elan us, Savigny. 



32. E. melanopterus (Lev., Ois. oVAfr.y t. 36 ; Gould's B. E., pi. 

 31.) 



Syn. Falco melanopterus, Daudin. 



F. Sonninensis et F. vociferus, Latham. 

 F. clamosuSy Shaw. 

 E. ccesius, Savigny. 

 Petite Buse Criarde, Sonnerat. 



Kotta Falcon, and (the young) Indian Falcon, Latham. 

 Kdpdshi (' cottony'), H.; Angkal Angkal, Java (Hors- 

 field). 

 Hab. S. Asia and its archipelago ; S. Europe (rare) ; and all 

 Africa : common in Lower Bengal, and generally over India. 



Remark. Of this genus, one strongly marked species exists in New 

 Holland, in the E. scriptus figured in Gould's * Birds of Australia.' 

 Another of great beauty and even more strikingly distinct, in S. Ame- 

 rica, the E. Swainsonii (v. Gampsonyx Swainsonii, Vigors, et E. tor- 

 quatus, Lesson). The other Elani of Asia, Africa, and America, are 

 scarcely, even if at all, distinguishable. The diagnosis of the Prince 

 of Canino separating the ordinary Elan of the New "World from that 

 of the Old (at least of Java), we have not found to hold good, and the 

 same is remarked by Prof. Schlegel ; but he distinguishes the African 

 on the one hand, from the Asiatic and ordinary Australian on the 

 other, referring that sometimes observed in the south of Europe to 

 the former. This naturalist remarks, that • ' les traits distinctifs des 

 diverses especes de ce genre n'ont e'te indiques jusqu'a present que 

 d'une maniere assez superficielle. VElanion blac, qui visite acci- 



