78 On the Structure and Habits of the Elanus Melanoplerus. [July 



some low roost, and, when relieved, commence another excursion, or 

 perchance sit and watch there for its prey. Its forward flight is easy, 

 low, and silent, but very effective in evolution when exertion is re- 

 quired to capture such nimble game as mice, which constitute its 

 ordinary food. 



It frequently whips off insects from the stalks of standing grain, af- 

 ter the manner of the Brahmani Cheel or Halicetus(!) Pondicerianus j 

 and this feat is, of course, accomplished on the wing. I have also 

 seen the Chanwa pursue cuckoos and sparrows with uncommon ener- 

 gy, but I never witnessed it strike a bird in the air. Like the type of 

 Circus, however, the Chanwa doubtless can, and sometimes does, seize 

 its feathered prey on the wing. So that its manners are, upon the 

 whole, sufficiently Fissirostral : perhaps as much so as its Raptorial 

 affinities will admit of. Analogies and affinities are very fine abstract 

 terms, which the quiet Orientals would be puzzled to deal with. But, as 

 these words really import no more than remote and near resemblance 

 of form and habits, one can hardly resist the presumption that (strong- 

 ly as habits illustrate form), so observant and ancient a people as the 

 Indians have probably reached some general conclusions as to the true 

 relations of the animate beings of their own country, such as may be, 

 oft-times, more worthy of a philosophical attention than the conclusions 

 upon the same matters that have been elaborated in Europe out of dry 

 skins, by dint of inference from structure so seen, to habits wholly ww- 

 Jcnowm 



Now, it is remarkable enough that the people have, for ages past, 

 been wont to approximate the Elani to the Harriers, but still without 

 confounding the two. Is there any warrant for this approximation ? 

 It would seem so : for, both are twilight questers, flying in the same 

 manner and seeking the same prey (mice). Both have large eyes and 

 ears, soft plumage, long wings, wide gapes, large nostrils nearly hid by 

 radiating hairs, bills much compressed and feeble before the cere, but 

 furnished with a long sharp hook and an accipitrine festoon. In several 

 of these common attributes there is an equal and conspicuous tendency 

 towards the Strigine model, which tendency seems to give fresh autho- 

 rity to that approximation of the two groups to each other, so long fami- 

 liar to the people of India, though but yesterday, and still dimly, per- 

 ceived by the towering ken of European science! 



