RAPTOllES. 53 



with transverse bands of brown and buff; tail brownish grey, 

 and nearly square in form, all the feathers, except the two 

 outer on each side, marked with about four obscure narrow 

 bands of black, the whole tipped with black ; irides very pale 

 yellow, freckled with light rufous ; cere, base of the bill and 

 feet greyish white; culmen and tip of the bill, and claws 

 black. 



The female has the same character of markings as the male, 

 but is readily distinguished by her greater size. 



Genus ELAN US, Savigny. 



The avifaunas of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the northern 

 portion of America are enriched by one, two, or more species 

 of this interesting form ; another and a truly elegant species 

 inhabits the Celebes and Java ; and Australia is tenanted by 

 two others (E. axillaris and E. scriptus), which appear to 

 perform very important offices in the parts of the country 

 they frequent : both are denizens of the warmer parts of 

 Australia, and consequently do not proceed so far south as 

 Tasmania. They hawk for insects in the air, and are truly 

 beautiful when seen from beneath, their silvery-white under 

 surface offering a pleasing contrast to the conspicuous mark- 

 ings of jet-black. 



Sp. 23. ELANUS AXILLARIS. 



Black-shouldered Kite. 



Falco axillaris, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 42. 

 Circus axillaris, Vieill. Encyc. Meth. Orn., part iii. p. 1212. 

 Elanus melanopterus, Vig. & Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 185. 

 notatus, Gould, in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part v. p. 141. 



Elanus axillaris, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. i. pi. 23. 



The Elanus axillaris is a summer visitant to the southern 

 portions of the Australian continent, over which it is very 

 widely but thinly dispersed, being found at Swan River on 



