203 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
common near all villages and fisheries. It breeds from December to 
February^ making a large nest in a tree and laying two or three eggs^ 
which are white blotched with reddish brown. 
Genus MILVUS, Cuvier, 
576, MILVUS AFFINIS. 
THE SMALLER HOUSE-KITE. 
Milvus affinis, Gould, P. Z. 8, 1837, p. 140 ; Hume, S. F. i. p. 160 Salvad. Ucc. 
Born. p. 10 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. i. p. 323 ; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 35 ; 
Wald. in Bl. B. Burm. p. 64 ; Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 299 ; Oates, S. F. v. 
p. 142 ; Davison, S. F. v. p. 453 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 23 ; Gurnei/, Ibis, 1879, 
p. 77 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 82 ; Scully, S. F. viii. p. 228 ; Bingham, 8. F. ix. 
p. 145 ; Oates, 8. F. x. p. 181. 
Description. — Male and female. The whole plumage dark brown^ paling 
on the head and the upper wing-coverts ; each feather with a distinct 
shaft-stripe ; chin and throat whitish^ with very distinct shaft-stripes ; tail 
obsoletely barred with dark brown on the central rectrices and the outer webs 
of the others^ more plainly on the inner webs ; the earlier primaries blacky 
mottled with white at their bases on the inner webs ; remaining primaries 
and the other quills of the wing brown_, more or less mottled with white at 
their bases and likewise slightly barred with darker brown ; the under 
wing-coverts brown margined with rufous ; ear-coverts and feathers behind 
the eye blackish brown. 
The young are rather darker brown than the adult_, each feather of the 
whole plumage tipped with pale buff; the shaft of each feather is black, 
and on the lower plumage there is a buflp streak on either side of the black 
shaft^ giving a conspicuous streaked appearance to the bird ; wing as in 
the adult^ but the white mottling less distinct. 
The above descriptions are taken from a large series of birds collected 
in Pegu. From the fact that there are no birds intermediate in plumage 
between the young just fledged and the fully adult^ it is probable that 
the young bird passes into adult plumage in the autumn succeeding its 
birth. 
Iris hazel-brown ; mouth flesh-colour ; legs pale lemon-yellow ; claws 
black ; gape_, cere and bill as far as the nostrils pale yellow ; the remainder 
of the bill black ; eyelids and ocular region bluish grey. 
Length 23 inches, tail 12, wing 16*5, tarsus 2, bill from gape 1*5. The 
female is rather larger. 
