MILVINE. 59 
compressed ; hind-claw much curved, and mid-claw with the interior 
margin usually much dilated, especially towards the tip ; inides 
brilliant yellow, duller or slightly brownish in younger birds ; cere 
black, greenish at nostrils and towards commissure ; gape and two- 
thirds of the commissure from gape, and greater portion of lower 
mandible, pale blue ; greater portion of upper mandible and tip of 
lower black; a small dingy-greenish patch on each side of the 
lower mandible towards the base; tongue moderate, obtuse, 
entire, rather stiff and membraneous towards the tip (where it is 
slightly emarginate) and margins.” ; 
With the exception of Sind, the Honey Buzzard is more or 
less common throughout the region; it occurs more plentifully 
in well-wooded districts ; it isa permanent resident, and breeds 
during May and June. The nest is generally placed at some 
height in a fork of a tree, and is_ composed of twigs, lined with 
dead leaves; the eggs, two in number, are very broad oval or 
nearly spherical in shape ; they are white, or buffy-white, in color, 
thickly clouded, blotched, or capped with deep reddish-brown 
or blood-red; they measure 2 inches in length, by about 1:7 
inches in breadth. 
Genus, Elanus, Savigny. 
Bill very small, wide at the base, compressed at the tip, which 
is much hooked and lengthened ; edge of upper mandible slightly 
sinvated ; cere short; nostrils large, oval, longitudinal ; wings 
very long, pointed, second quill longest, the first emarginate near 
the tip; tail short, almost even, or emarginate ; tarsi short, 
thick, weak, plumed above, covered with reticulated very small 
roundish scales beneath ; toes thick, soft, free, unequal ; outer 
toe shorter than the inner one; claws rather large, middle one 
keeled, others rounded. 
Elanus coeruleus, Desf. 
59.—Elanus melanopterus, Daud.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, 
Vol. I, p.112; Butler, Guzerat; Stray F eathers, Vol. III, 
p. 449; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 375; Murray’s 
Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 92; Swinhoe and Barnes, 
Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 58 ; Hume’s Scrap Book, p. 338. 
THE BLACK-WINGED KITE. 
Length, 12 to 13; expanse, 34 to 35; wing, 10 to T7o*. taal, 
5:25 to 5°75; tarsus, 1:1 to 1:3; bill from gape, 0°95 to 1°15. 
Legs and feet bright yellow; claws black ; bill black, cere and 
base of lower mandible yellow; irides bright crimson in the 
adult, yellowish-pink or bright yellow in the young. 
Plwmage.—Adult: forehead a narrow streak above the dark 
supercilium; the anterior portion of the lores, the chin, cheeks, 
ear-coverts, throat and whole lower parts, wing-lining, edge of the 
wing, and all but the central tail-feathers white ; the external webs 
of all, but the two exterior on each side of these, more or less 
