248 Birds in Sanskrit Literature should thus be the same as firefreure for, a Harrier (para 9 above). M. Williams on the other hand separates the last two words of the first line as me and were, and renders the latter as a kind of bird', but this I have not met with it in literature or in any other lexicon. The term re may be the same as ur for the Crane or it may, placed as it is with , refer to the Marsh-Harrier which flies chiefly over water- logged areas in search of frogs, water-mice, sickly birds, insects, etc. for food. 12. The Buzzards are closely allied to the Eagles but due to extreme colour variation among them it is almost impossible to distinguish the different species in the field. They are comparatively sluggish birds with a heavy flight and feed upon rats, mice, frogs, lizards, large insects, etc. and go by the name of a (rat-hawk) in Hindi corresponding to Sansk. fufcemer (fafe, fafest a mouse, and we to move or w a dart) for a kind of Hawk in ftare but not found in Sansk. lexicons none of which however claims to be exhaustive in any respect. The sentence, "aragrafent श्पैनो गतः—"the Hawk went away taking hold of the mouse in सिद्धान्तकौमुदी, Basu's translation, supports the name fafcare for a kind of Hawk. 13. The Indian Crested Honey Buzzard (27") is a brown Hawk with a dense body-plumage and the entire face covered with small scale-like feathers. Thus equipped by nature it is free to attack combs of wasps and bees and feed upon honey wax, larvae and even bees (Oates, F.B.I., first edition). It is known as in Nepal and is the gr* or (honey-thief) of figat. Two of the names for the progeny of Garuda in the Maha- bhārata List, viz., मधुपर्क (मधुना पर्को सम्पर्को यस्य – शब्दकल्प०) and सोमभोजन (cf. "एलई प्रत्यक्षात् सोमरूपं यम्मधु"—शत. ब्राह्मण, 12.8.2.15) probably refer to this Hawk. 14. The Indian Black-crested Baza is a very small Hawk (13"). It is a black and chestnut bird with a long black nuchal crest, black tail, and white breast with two broad white and chestnut bands separating the black neck and the white breast. The eyes are beautiful and lustrous. It is thus a very beautiful little Hawk and is aptly known as TH (beautifully dark, cf. var for sig) in Nepal. The term is an adnoun for the Indian Koel but the lexicons do not give it for a Hawk. H is a name of one of the descendants of the Mahabharata List, and is also the name of god f, represented as a beautiful youth. It is therefore suggested that the name may well refer to this handsome Baza. af for a bird ut in the following verse probably refers to a human robber of a honey-comb: सर्वथा संहितैरेव दुर्बलंबलवानपि । अमितः शक्यते हन्तुं मधुहा अमरैरिव ॥ - MBh. 5.33.70 But with a pun on yg it can apply to man and Hawk both, for it is just possible that occasionally by a determined attack by a swarm of infuriated rock-bees even the Hawk is driven off. Eagles, Falcons and Allied Birds of prey has already been suggested in Section B, para 2 for the Crested Hawk Eagle but it can also apply to this bird as it has a black crest and a black tail, for five means both 'crest' and 'tail' of a bird. tf would then be a Hawk in which both these parts are black. 249
