1872.] W. T. Blanford — On Birds from Sikkim. 153 
« 
alpine and subalpine parts of the country, hut 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 a. Milvus melanotis, Temm. and Schl. 
Fauna Japonica, Aves, PI. iv and v. 
Milvus major, Hume. Rough notes, Pt. I, p. 326. 
After comparing a good series of specimens from the Godavari 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 Radde and Schrenk, 
who identify M. melanotis with M. migrant, 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. migrant would be much smaller than 
M. major. 
In the Fauna Japonica, however, it is expressly stated that M. melanotis 
is as large as II. regalis, but distinguished by the tail being less deeply forked, 
not more than in M. cetolius (i. e. migrant). The measurements given are ; 
length 23 to 24 French inches, wing 17] to 18, tail 101 to 11, tarsus 2 r \, 
mid toe If. The sexes are said to differ in size. The above are the 
dimensions of males of II. major, (the corresponding English measures 
being, whig 19*, tail Ilf, 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 
equals the male of II. 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 II 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 Tamldng, the other a young bird in the plumage described 
at p. 327 of Mr. Hume’s “Bough 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 Godavari near Bhadrachalam, about one hundred miles 
north of Yelaur (Ellore). I obtained three specimens, one of them as late 
