310 M, Menzbier on the Birds of European 



Government of Grodno) ; but it is a very rare accidental 

 visitor to Central Kussia, being found there only as far east 

 as tlie Governments of Tula and of Orel. In the southern 

 portions of Russia the Red Kite doubtless breeds in the dis- 

 trict of Uman (in the Government of Kiev), in the district 

 of Balta (in the Government of Podolsk), near the Dnieper, 

 and. generally in the steppes of the Black Sea west of the 

 Dnieper. In the last-mentioned part of Russia and in Bess- 

 arabia the Red Kite is very common, though it is seen but 

 rarely in the Crimea. 



Mr. Severtzov, in his ' Fauna of the Government of Vo- 

 ronesh,' says the Red Kite was observed by him several 

 times in that country ; but Mr. Severtzov now tells me 

 that he was probably mistaken, and that the Red Kites of his 

 ' Fauna ' were only rufous and deeply forked-tailed examples 

 of Milvus ater. Pallas says the Red Kite winters on 

 the Lower Volga ; according to Eversmann it occasionally 

 occurs about the lower part of this river ; and Mr. Sa])aneev 

 states that he has seen several Red Kites, amongst hundreds 

 of Milvus ater, flying towards some dead animals in the 

 Kaslinsky Ural. But it is a mistake : no one has ever seen 

 Red Kites in the country between the Government of Tula, 

 the Ural Mountains, and the Lower Volga ; not one skin of 

 Milvus regalis has ever been obtained from Russia east of 

 the Don. 



" Kites were observed at Cholmogory and elsewhere, usually 

 near towns and villages,^^ Messrs. Alston and Harvie Brown 

 inform us, in their ^ Notes from Archangel.' ^'We did not 

 obtain any specimens, but believe them to have been of this 

 species [M. regalis), ^hxch was the one procured by Lilljeborg 

 and Meves.^' I ought to say that Messrs. Lilljeborg and 

 Meves procured in North Russia only Milvus ater ; and as 

 Milvus regalis certainly does not exist in Finland, I think the 

 Milvus regalis of Messrs. Alston and Harvie Brown is really 

 our common Milvus ater. 



Milvus ater. 



The Black Kite is very common throughout the whole of 



