ALLIED KITE. 
Ceylon Kite {op. cit. p. 81) considers that the Ceylon bird belongs to 
a race not absolutely identical either with the Australian Milvus or with 
the ‘ ordinary brown-plumaged bird of the plains of India.^ . . . The Kite 
of Ceylon and the smallest Indian Kites appear, in fact, to hold a position 
intermediate between the typical M. affinis of Australia and the ordinarj^ 
Indian Kite. . . . Mr. Hume writes : ‘ Affinis and govinda inosculate, so that 
while some Indian specimens are absolutely identical with the Australian 
affinis, others may be met with which it is difficult to decide whether to 
assign to govinda or affinis.’’ ” 
The matter of the Indian Kites was much written about, the smallest 
ones being continually referred to Gould’s M. affinis, and no conclusion was 
imanimously arrived at, though it will be noted that Gurney and Legge 
both noted that Australian specimens were still less, on the average, than 
the smallest Indian birds. 
In the Fauna of British India Birds, Vol. III., 1895, Blanford included : 
p. 374 Milvus govinda = M. affinis Gould, p. 377 ; M. melanotis and 
M. migrans p. 378, explaining (p. 376) : It will be seen from the synonymy 
that I do not separate M. affinis, the Australian bird, found also in 
India, and distinguished by smaller size and by the absence of any 
white mottling at the base of the inner webs of the primaries. Every 
gradation may be found in India between birds with a large white 
patch beneath the wing {M. palustris Anderson) and those without 
any white, and the latter, if of small size, are identical with Australian 
specimens. Burmese birds are, as a rule, darker than Indian, both 
above and below, but the character is not constant, and Australian birds 
resemble those of India, not those of Burmah, in colour.” M. melanotis 
was regarded as being “ a migratory bird in India ” from the north as 
far as “ Japan and Southern Siberia in summer,” while M. migrans 
was only admitted from “ Southern Afghanistan, around Quetta.” 
A complete and scientific review of the question was prepared, by 
Meyer and Wiglesworth in the Birds of Celebes, Vol. I., pp. 57-60, 1898. 
I would extract the following : “It should be borne in mind that 
M. govinda and the large melanotis are only worthy of subspecific separation 
from M. migrans of the western Palsearctic Region. In India the two 
forms possibly do not intergrade. It is inconceivable that a race, hardly 
separable for M. govinda at the best, should occur as an independent 
breeding bird intermingled with the latter. . . . There is evidently a differ- 
ence at least in size between the race of Australia and that of Burmah, 
which is spoken of by Mr. Oates and others as affinis. . . . The Australian 
specimens in the British Museum are also on the whole somewhat more 
179 
