The TESA (_Poliornis Tesa_), the Indian representative of the species
above described, is found throughout Hindostan, where it is very numerous
both upon pasture land and on open plains. The flight of this Buzzard
is rapid, and much resembles that of the Kestrel. When upon the wing it
usually keeps near the ground, over which it often runs for some yards,
in order to secure its prey, and few prettier sights can be imagined than
that presented by this bird as it thus half runs, half flies, in pursuit
of the grasshoppers, upon which it mainly subsists; it will also eagerly
devour rats, mice, lizards and small snakes, frogs, cray-fish, crabs,
and large insects. Burgess tells us he saw a Tesa picking the remains of
a full-grown Quail. The eyrie is built upon a tree; the eggs, four in
number, are laid about April or May; these are sometimes quite white, or
white spotted and marked with brown.
* * * * *
South America possesses a group of Buzzards, distinguished from the birds
already described, by the formation of their beak, which is usually thin
and shallow. The members of this group are also more slender, and have
smaller heads and longer wings than the rest of the family; their wings,
in which the fourth quill is the longest, are narrow, very pointed, and
extend beyond the end of the long and broad tail; the latter is either
graduated or excised at its extremity. Their legs are weak, and the tarsi
bare; the toes are long, and armed with long, slender, and slightly bent
talons.