CHAPTER XIII

KITES AND HARRIERS

KITES [AND HARRIERS].—There are three common species of kites.[134] In the first, the two centre tail-feathers, called by the Arabs _ʿamūd_,[135] and by Persian and Turkish[136] falconers _qāpāq_,[137] are shorter than the rest, the outer feathers being longer. The general colouring of the plumage is a dirty brown with dark coloured drops on the breast. The feet are small and the tarsi[138] short.

2ND SPECIES [MARSH HARRIER?].—The second species haunts marshes and reedy pools in quest of frogs and rats. In this species the tarsus is long[139] and unfeathered, and the feet are small, ill-looking, and black. There is also a certain amount of white on the head.

3RD SPECIES.—In the third species the general colouring of the plumage—with the exception of the head, which is reddish—is very dark. In habits it resembles the two preceding.

All three species are cowardly and mean-spirited. A good _T̤arlān_, trained to large quarry, will generally take them.[140]

Should the fork-tailed kite[141] see a sparrow-hawk or merlin with a bird in its feet, it will fuss round it, doing its utmost to steal it from the lucky possessor. If unsuccessful, it returns to its quest of mice and garbage.

These above-described species are related to the eagles. Under this head, too, I have even included the Carrion Vulture[142] and the Scavenger Vulture.[143]

FOOTNOTES:

[134] _Chīlāq_ T. The kite is rare in Persia. It is, however, fairly common near Bushire.

[135] _ʿAmūd_ Ar., “a prop, a pillar.”

[136] Turk. This word properly includes Turks, Tartars, and all who claim their descent from Turk the son of Japhet. A large proportion of the population of Persia is Turkish.

[137] _Qāpāq_, the “deck-feathers” of old English falconers. According to the _Boke of St. Albans_ the centre or uppermost tail-feather was called the _beme feder of the tayle_, the flight-feathers being called _the beme federes of the wyng_.

[138] _Sāq_, properly the shin or shank of a man, animal, or bird. Elsewhere the author, with one other exception, uses the word _qalam_, “a pen, etc.,” for “tarsus.”

[139] The Kites have short tarsi, the Harriers, long. In the adult Harriers the iris is yellow, but in the immature birds, of several species at any rate, the iris is brown. The iris of the common Pariah Kite (_Milvus govinda_) is brown, while that of the “Common Kite” of England (_M. regalis_) is said to be yellow.