Vol. win. 1 Jackson, Haunts of the Lettev-winged Kite. 165 



Some of the young Inrds, well feathered but not able to fly, were 

 taken from the nests and kept aUve at the camp in a box: for a 

 few weeks. We fed them morning and evening with pieces of rat- 

 flesh cut from those which we had killed the night previous. It 

 was remarkable how comparatively tame they soon became, and 

 at feeding time they would sit with their mouths wide open, 

 screeching loudly. It was surprising the way they could gulp 

 down large lumps of food, and often impatiently snap it from 

 your hand. We always removed the skin from the rat before 

 cutting it up to feed them, and later, when a whole unskinned 

 rat was thrown into their box, one of the birds would quickly 

 grasp it with its sharp, strong claws, tear it to pieces with its bill, 

 eating it nearly all without assistance. Three of them are shown 

 in the box in an accompanying photograph. Not only do these 

 birds eject the fur, but the bones have very frequently been also 

 found in the fur pellets which they cast up. 



Only on one occasion did we find these birds breeding in a nest 

 belonging to another species, when the eggs were found in a nest 

 of the common Kite {Milvtis affinis), and in all probability the 

 Milvus had taken the nest of the Letter-winged Kite first, as the 

 Milviis were found frequently using the nests of these other birds. 

 A series of 15 of the birds under notice was secured and made 

 into skins — from nestlings about a week or 10 days old up to 

 the fully adult breeding birds. Of these, 11 were nesthngs of 

 various ages, 2 adult males, and 2 adult females. 



On examination of the young birds to try and ascertain their 

 sex, I was surprised to find how well developed the sexual organs 

 were in most of them. It is a well-recognized fact that, as a rule, 

 nestlings cannot be sexed, and that has also been my experience 

 until I examined the young ones under notice. The young in 

 the down stage, and about a week old, are white on the head and 

 breast and pale fawn on the back. Legs pale flesh colour, bill 

 black, and eyes coffee-colour. The young, oji hatching, have 

 black eyes. Nestlings about a month old all have a rusty- 

 coloured breast, and a male specimen measures — -total length 

 265 mm., wing 159 mm., tarsus 33 mm., bill 31 mm., tail 60 mm. 

 Cere pale horn ; legs and feet pale yellow ; bill black ; claws 

 black ; eyes coffee-brown. (Testes small.) Another specimen 

 (female), about seven weeks old, and able to fly, measures — total 

 length 380 mm., wing 312 mm., tail 162 mm., tarsus 33 mm., 

 bill 33 mm. Cere light horn ; legs and feet pale yellow ; bill 

 black ; claws black ; eyes reddish- brown. (Ovaries present.) 

 The rusty colouring on the breast gradually disappears after the 

 birds fly from the nests, and the coffee-coloured eyes start to turn 

 to a reddish-brown. 



I noticed that some of the full-grown and flying young measured 

 about half an inch more than the old adult birds in total length, 

 and the specimens were all measured most carefully. An average 

 adult (breeding) male measures in mm. :— Total length 340, wing 

 302. tail 149, tarsus 32, bill 30. Cere horn colour ; legs and feet 



