FALCONID.t. 



337 



THE BLACK KITE. 



MiLvus MIGRANS (Boddaert). 



Although the Black Kite is a regular summer-visitor to the 

 valleys of the Rhine and the Moselle, as well as to other districts of 

 the Continent at no great distance from our shores, yet only one 

 example is known to have been obtained in Great Britain. This, an 

 adult male, now in the Newcastle Museum, was taken in a trap in 

 the deer-park at Alnwick, and brought in a fresh state to the late 

 Mr. John Hancock on May nth iS66. 



On Heligoland the Black Kite has seldom been identified, but 

 it arrives on the southern side of the Baltic about the end of March, 

 and leaves again in September. Owing to its partiality for marshy 

 forests, open valleys and the vicinity of water, it is local in its 

 distribution, and it is only an irregular visitor to Holland, Belgium 

 and the north of France ; but it breeds annually, in suitable 

 localities, in Germany, the lake-districts of Switzerland, and the 

 southern half of France ; while it is abundant in Spain from the 

 beginning of March until October, though not numerous on the 

 mainland and islands of Italy, or in Greece. It is distributed over 

 Central Europe, and is found in Russia, from Finland and the 



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