Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue of Accipitres. 73 



same tint pervades a very narrow portion of tlie forehead 

 adjacent to the cere; but it never extends over the crown of 

 the head^ as is always the case in the adult of M. migrans ; 

 on this part, as well as on the nape and adjacent portions of 

 the sides of the neck^ the margins of the feathers in M. affinis 

 and M. (Bgyptius are not white, but a decided rufous^ though 

 paler in some individuals than in others. 



The upper portions of the ear-coverts are much darker than 

 the surrounding plumage in the adults oi M. cegyptius and 

 M. affinis, but hardly at all so in those of M. migrans. 



Tiie brown shaft-marks on the feathers covering the upper 

 portion of the breast in the adults of M. migrans are, so far as 

 I have observed, always somewhat broader than those on the 

 corresponding feathers of the other two species ; and though 

 these shaft-marks are of variable breadth in both M. (Bgyptius 

 and in M. affinis, and in some specimens of both these species 

 are nearly as broad as in M. migrans, I l^elieve that they 

 never quite equal in breadth those of M. migrans, and that 

 this difference between that species and M. cegyptius and 

 a^nis, though not very great, is nevertheless quite constant, 

 and therefore important. 



The yellow horn-colour of the bill in M. (Bgyptius is ac- 

 quired very gradually, and apparently less rapidly in some 

 individuals than in others ; it is not very uncommon to find 

 specimens of this Kite which have attained their adult dress 

 before the bill has assumed its yellow colouring ; such speci- 

 mens bear a considerable resemblance to the adults of M. 

 migrans, and still more to those of M. affinis. 



In my edition of the late C.J. Andersson^s ' Notes on the 

 Birds of Damara Land,^ I inserted, at the end of his observa- 

 tions upon M. migrans, the following remark : — ^^Mr. Anders- 

 song's last collection contained specimens of this Kite from 

 Ondonga, in both adult and immature plumage ; the speci- 

 mens in apparently adult dress did not, however, exhibit the 

 grey tints on the head which distinguish the adult Black 

 Kites of Europe and Northern Africa, but which I have not 

 yet met with in any South- African specimen"^. Unfor- 

 * Virlc ' Birds of Damara Land/ p. 22. 



