60 FALCONID^. 



No. 59 ; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 570 ; Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p2i ; Sfr. 

 F. i. pp. 21, 163 ; Murray, Zool., &c., Sind, p. 117; id. Vert. Zool. Sind, 

 p. 92. The BLACK-WINGED KITE. 



Adult. Entire upper parts ashy grey, lighter on the head ; forehead, eye- 

 brow, lores and sides of face white ; ear-coverts ashy grey ; supercilium dark 

 brown or black ; lesser and median wing coverts and winglet glossy black ; 

 greater coverts concolourous with the back. Axillaries and under wing coverts 

 white ; inner lining of wing dark grey ; primary coverts and quills ashy grey, 

 the latter white at the base and black-shafted. Tail ashy, the two centre 

 feathers greyish ; entire under parts white. Cere, orbits, and feet yellow ; bill 

 black ; irides crimson. 



Length. 13 inches; wing IO*6 to ii ; tail 5-6; tarsus 1-4. 



Hal^ South-Eastern Europe, Africa, India and Ceylon. Very widely dis- 

 tributed. Recorded from Egypt, Gambia, Transvaal, South Africa, and the 

 Mediterranean ; also from Kutch, Kattiawar, Jodhpore, Sambhur, North 

 Guzerat, the Concan and Deccan, Pegu, Burmah and Nepaul. Breeds 

 almost throughout Upper India. Nest circular, composed of small twigs and 

 sticks, and lined with fine grass roots and fibres. Eggs, bluish white or creamy, 

 streaked and blotched with pale yellowish brown or brownish red. 



As to the habits of this species there is not much recorded ; it usually flies 

 low, skimming above the surface of the ground, or hovers in the air much like 

 a kestrel, but dropping suddenly to the ground. It is not uncommon to 

 see it perch on telegraph wires, on the bare end of a bough, or on some dry 

 tree in the vicinity of water. It feeds chiefly on rats, mice, beetles, grass- 

 hoppers, and other insects. 



It is a resident in Sind, and affects chiefly the acacia forests lining the 

 banks of the Indus. Breeds in the Narra districts from June to August. 



Gen. Machseramphus. Westermann. 



Bill small, feeble, and keeled ; culmen, with a sharp cutting edge, which has 

 two faint sinuations on the upper mandible ; cere small; nostrils long, oblique, 

 pierced near the margin of the cere; loreal plumes produced above half the 

 nostril ; tail of 1 2 feathers ; tarsi feathered in front for three-fourths of an inch, 

 reticulate ; outer and inner toes, with claws of the same length. 



