IV FALCONIDAE 17 
hang round a wounded individual like Terns. In the nest and 
egos this species and the last resemble their kin, though using 
no rubbish in building. Nauclerus riocourt, of inter-tropical Africa, 
a miniature L/anoides, is grey, with white face and lower surface. 
Gampsonyx swainsoni, of Trinidad, Guiana, Colombia, Peru, 
and Brazil, is grey, with yellow face, white collar, under parts 
and tips to the secondaries; a black patch relieving each side of 
the breast and one of red the upper back. The tail is rounded 
in this and the succeeding genus. anus caeruleus, the Black- 
winged Kite, straying to South-West Europe, but properly ranging 
from the South-East to India, Ceylon, and all Africa, is ashy-grey 
above with a black patch on the wing-coverts; the face, lateral 
rectrices, and all the lower plumage being white, and the irides 
red. A sub-species, £. hypoleucus, occupies Borneo, Java, the 
Philippines, and ‘Celebes. £. scriptus of Australia, £. aaillaris, 
extending thence to Java, and the hardly separable £. leucurus 
of tropical and sub-tropical America, are marked with black on 
the under wing-coverts, while the first has black axillaries also. 
These buoyant birds are fond of perching, but soar with ease, 
quartering the plains hke Harriers, or hovering with uplifted wings 
to dart down upon their prey of insects, snakes, small mammals, and 
more rarely birds. The cry is mournful; the small nest, of sticks, 
grass, and moss, is placed in trees; the three, four, or even eight 
white eggs being heavily blotched with red. JLetinia mississip- 
piensis, the Mississippi Kite, found from the Southern United 
States to Guatemala, and represented from Mexico to Paraguay 
by the black-winged J. plumbea, is lead-coloured, with black notched 
tail and rufous inner webs to the primaries; its manners cor- 
respond to those of Hlanoides, but the eggs are white. 
That most abnormal form Rostrhamus sociabilis, the Awl-billed 
or Everglade Kite, ranging from Florida and Cuba to Bolivia and 
Argentina, is slaty-black, with white base and tip to the brownish 
emarginate tail, orange cere and feet, and crimson irides. The 
extraordinarily slender bill with long terminal hook no doubt 
assists greatly in extracting from their shells the molluscs, such 
as Ampullaria, on which this species entirely subsists, while its 
long legs and sharp talons help to secure the prey in the 
muddy swamps it frequents. Mr. Gibson’ tells us that it is to 
some extent gregarious, and is often seen slowly beating over the 
1 Cf. Ibis, 1879, pp. 413, 414. 
