MILVTTS GOVINDA. 
81 
dark brown, more or less incomplete towards the margins ; tips of all but the two outer feathers whitish ; a line of 
blackish above the lores, and over the ears a dark brown patch ; face greyish with the shafts dark ; beneath brown, 
paling to tawny rufous from the lower breast to the under tail-coverts ; the centres of the feathers dark brown 
and the shafts blackish, the web adjacent to the mesial stripes being somewhat paler than the margin ; margins 
of the throat- feathers fulvous, and the basal portions of the webs whitish ; on the belly and under tail-coverts the 
mesial stripes are wanting, the shafts alone being dark ; least under wing-coverts deep tawny, the feathers dark- 
centred ; greater series blackish brown with tawny edges ; primary under wing-coverts ashen-brown with dark 
softened bands ; basal portion of the 2nd and 3rd quills beneath more or less whitish, the amount of white varying 
much in individuals, some being quite as dark as M. ajffinis. 
Young. In the first, or nestling plumage, the head, back, rump, and wing-coverts are dark brown with a purplish 
gloss, the feathers of the head and hind neck with terminal whitish-buff “ points ” or streaks, surrounding a shaft- 
stripe darker than the rest of the feather ; those of the back and rump with terminal margins of a slightly more 
rufous hue, the wing-coverts and tertials with much deeper tips of fulvous, passing with a rusty tint into the 
brown, and surrounding a dark shaft-stripe ; primaries and their coverts blackish brown, tipped with fulvous, 
slightly on the longer primaries, and deeply on the rest; the inner webs of the quills mottled with dusky greyish ; 
tail obscure ashen-brown, tipped with fulvous and crossed with indistinct bars (as in the adult) of darker brown. 
Loral streak and postorbital patch darker, and the latter more extensive than in the adult ; throat and lower part of 
cheeks fulvous, with narrow shaft-stripes of brown ; fore neck, chest, breast, and flanks brown, the centres of the 
feathers rufous, enclosing pointed shaft-stripes of blackish brown ; on the lower parts the brown hue pales into 
brownish fulvous, and the shaft-stripes disappear ; tibial plumes and under tail-coverts more rufous still ; under 
wing-coverts dark chocolate-browm tipped with fulvous, the primary-coverts ashen-brown with the outer webs 
whitish, as is also the edge of the wing ; basal portion of primaries beneath scarcely showing any white in some 
birds, and in others even more than in old birds. 
In the following season the terminal margins throughout the upper surface are less conspicuous, and those of the baek- 
and scapular feathers less rufous, the margins of the head- and hindneck-feathers, however, are often more 
fulveseent, and the dark stripes on the latter part less conspicuous than in the nestling ; the tips of the secondaries 
are likewise less in extent ; on the under surface the throat becomes more “ lined,” the streaks on the chest and 
upper breast diminish, and their pale borders contrast less forcibly with them, while the ground-colour of these 
parts is browner than in the youngest stage ; the amount of white at the base of the quills beneath varies, but it 
is usually more extensive during this period. 
When not fully adult, the signs of nonage show themselves in the pale tips of the back, scapulars, and tertials, the 
softened and less intense shaft-lines of the head and hind neck, and the pale borders of the dark chest-striae ; the 
markings of the throat are variable at this stage, the shaft-lines being marked in some and faint in others, w'hile 
the ground-colour is at times conspicuously rufous ; the quills are quite untipped in these birds, and the lower 
parts more rufous than in adults. 
Obs. The difference of opinion among some ornithologists as to wKat Kites in India should be classed as M. govindu 
and what as M. ajffinis makes it somewhat difficult to define what the Ceylon birds really are, as they present some 
points of dissimilarity to the types of both these species. If typical M. affinis be represented by the small rufous- 
plumaged Kite inhabiting the east coast of Australia and the Malay Archipelago, and M. govinda by the ordinary 
brown-plumaged bird of the plains of India, having a certain amount of white (wliich, however, is a variable and 
uncertain characteristic in Ceylon birds) at the base of the primaries beneath, then the Ceylon Kite has more 
affinity with the latter than with the former. 
From M. affinis it differs, as an adult bird, in the less rufous coloration of the head, hind neck, and lesser wing-coverts, 
and in youth in the less-rufescent character of the upper-surface tippings, a Macassar example being taken for 
comparison. It is likewise a larger bird, the wings of six examples of M. affinis measuring as follows — (Sydney) 
15-8, (Australia) 15-0, (Australia) 15-2, (Timor) 16-5, (Macassar) 16'G, (Timor) 16'5. As regards the pale markings 
of the under wing, adults of M. ctjjinis are on the w hole darker than Ceylon birds, which, though quite as dark in 
the young stage, are variable when mature. From the type of M. govinda in the India Museum, and similar 
examples in the British and Norwich Museums, the insular bird differs in the more rufous edgings of the head- and 
hindneck-feathers, the paler median wing-coverts, more cinereous tail, more conspicuous striation of the upper 
part of the throat, more ashy hue of the dark chest-stripes, and more fulvous colour of the abdomen and under 
tail-coverts ; but though these differences are numerous, they are less appreciable than are those in the case of the 
Australasian bird. The Ceylon Milvus is also a somewhat smaller bird than the Indian M. govinda, Sykes’s type, a 
female measuring 18-5 inches in the wing, aud others I have examined 1S-0, 17‘S, 17’8 and 17'4, while Mr. Hume 
gives the wing in five females as from 18 - 25 to 19T0. 
M 
