338 FALCONID^ MILVUS 



out (Woodward), St. Lucia Lake in Zululand (Woodward) ; 

 Transvaal Marico and Potchefstroom (Ayres), Pretoria in 

 summer (Distant) ; Ehodesia Tati and Bamequeban rivers south 

 of Bulawayo in September and October (Gates), Salisbury, Sep- 

 tember to March (Marshall) ; German south-west Africa Eehe- 

 both, January (Fleck), Ondonga and other places from October 

 to April (Andersson) ; Portuguese east Africa Beira dist. October 

 (S. A. Mus.), Zambesi river (Alexander). 



Habits. The Yellow-billed Kite is a bold and fearless bird of 

 rapid and graceful flight ; as stated above it is by no means common 

 in Cape Colony but becomes more abundant further north ; a pair 

 may usually be seen, according to Marshall, patrolling the streets 

 of Salisbury in search of something edible. It is particularly partial 

 to young chickens, whence the Dutch vernacular name, but it will 

 devour almost anything from lizards to fish and insects, especially 

 locusts, which it catches on the wing and of which it is inordinately 

 fond. Carrion soon attracts the Kite, but it is no match for the 

 crows who usually arrive first on the scene, and has to content itself 

 with darting down from above and taking off pieces of flesh in its 

 talons to devour during flight. It has a loud and shrill mew -like 

 cry. 



It nests on the banks of the Berg river north of Cape Town, 

 whence Layard received eggs ; Alexander also observed it breeding 

 in the Zambesi. The nest, a solid compact structure of sticks, is 

 placed sometimes in a cleft in the rocky hills but more generally 

 in a fork of a high tree. The eggs are dirty white in colour, blotched 

 more or less with dried blood-coloured streaks and patches. They 

 measure 2-35 x 1'70. 



535. Milvus korschun. Black Kite. 



Accipiter korschun, Gmel. N. Comm. Petrop. xv, p. 444 (1771), 

 Falco migrans, Bodd. Tail PI Enl. p. 28 (1783). 

 JWrt^y^Falco ater, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i, p. 262 (1788). 

 Milvus ater, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 25 (1867). 

 Milvus migrans, Gurney in Andersson's B. Damaraland, p. 21 (1872) ; 



id. Ibis, 1879, p. 71. 

 Milvus korschun, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. i, p. 322 (1874) ; id. ed. Layard's 



B. S. Afr. pp. 50, 798 (1875-84). 



Description. The Black Kite closely resembles in size and 

 plumage the Yellow-billed Kite ; the adult bird can be distinguished 

 by the fact that the feathers of the head, neck, and upper breast 

 are greyish-white with dark brown shaft marks, whereas in 



