KITES are birds belonging to the sub-family Milvinm, and they are arranged in the genera Milvus, Ilaliastur, Pernis, Baza, and Elanus. In Bengal, the kites and Brahmany kites breed chiefly in January and February, and disappear during the rains. The Dung kite or Dung bird, Neophron perenopterus, Linn., called Pharaoh's chicken or the Egyptian vulture, is abundant southwards from Bengal, also in N. Africa, W. Asia, S. Europe, and even in England. The male has a dirty blackish-brown colour, but the hen bird is white, with yellow about the cheeks. It walks with ease and with a stately gait, and frequents localities where flesh or sweepings are thrown. It builds on cliffs, houses, and trees.
The Brahmany kite of India, the flaliastur Indus, Bodd., one of the Milvinm, is known to all by its clear maroon-coloured black and white breast and abdomen, and frequenting the river valleys, lakes, and sea-coasts, wherever wet cultivation is in progress, swarming where fishers throw- their nets, and about shipping in the harbours, picking up small fishes, prawns, or offal, the frogs from rice-fields, water insects, mice, and shrews, and young or sickly birds and wounded snipe. Near towns it is very tame and fearless, and every Sunday pious Hindus may be seen calling Hari! Hari I to attract the bird's attention, and then feeding it by throwing to it bits of flesh. The audacity of the Brahmany kite is admirable. Major Moor mentions as one instance, of which he was a witness, viz. stooping and taking a chop off gridiron standing over the fire that cooked it. It receives its name from Europeans, because Brahmans and religious Hindus -worship it, and regard it as Garuda, the type or vahan of Vishnu. The birds are expert fishers. Hindus of N. India call it the Brah many chil, and by the Muhammadans it is known as the Ru-inubarak or Blessed Appearance.
Tho Milvus govinda, Sykes, the common pariah kite, extends through all India, Burma, and 3lalayana, and is one of the most abundant and common birds in India. Every town, canton ment, camp, and village has its colony of this kite, which ply their vocation from morning till night, picking up fragments of food and garbage. In Calcutta, 200 or 300 may be seen at a time. They are bold and fearless. Of all rapacious birds, the govind-kite is the most useful ; wher ever offal exists, this bird is to be found, hovering over the butcher's shop, the kitchen, or the barrack,—now leisurely sailing in circles, now darting like an arrow upon its prey, which it devours while on the wing, uttering a clear shrill cry whenever a companion disputes its possession. Its ordinary name is the chil, from its peculiarly shrill call. The govind-kite, Egyptian vulture, crow, Indian jackdaw, and mina may justly be termed the great scavengers of India.
The crested black kite of all India is the Baza lophotes, Cm; it is not abundant. Its very hand some white and black plumage at once attracts attention.
The Lophastur Jerdoni, Blyth, is a kite of Malayana and the isles.
The black-winged kite of India, Elanus mel anopterns, Daud., lives near the skirts of jungles, and is not much on the wing.
The kite eagles of India belong to the genus Neopus of the Aquilinte. Neopus 3falaiensis, Reinwardt, the black eagle, is found in most of the hilly and jungly districts of India, in Burma, and Malayana. It is generally seen circling or questing for prey at no great height. It is a bird of easy and graceful flight. Its chief food is obtained by robbing birds nests of the eggs and the young.—Moor, p. 314; Adams ; Jerdon's Birds of India.