176 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



on large grasshoppers, but also catch mice. In Egypt, Mr. 

 Stafford Allen says that the bird is crepuscular in its habits, 

 feeding largely on mice and beetles, as well as small bird?. 



Mr. Hume likewise speaks of the curious hovering flight of 

 the Black-shouldered Kite. He says : " They hover over the 

 grass in the fashion of a Kestrel, or perhaps more like a Snake-- 

 Eagle (Circaetus gallicus), but in a clumsier and heavier manner. 

 The wings point upwards, instead of being retained nearly 

 horizontally as in the Kestrel, and the legs and tail hang down 

 in a manner unlike that of any other bird I have yet noticed. 

 Thus hovering, they after a time slowly descend, and when 

 within a few feet of the ground, generally drop suddenly. They 

 are very tame, bold birds, passing unconcernedly within a 

 few yards of a sportsman, when busy hunting, over fields of 

 grass, and sitting composedly on the bare end of a bough, 

 whilst, gun in hnd, one walks up to within a few paces of 

 their perch." 



Nest. Composed of sticks and lined with grass roots and 

 fibres, and always built in a tree. 



Eggs. Three or four, generally the latter number, on rare 

 occasions five. Ground-colour yellowish-white or buffy-white, 

 the markings varying considerably. Very few but what are 

 richly marked with chestnut ; one egg in the Hume collection, 

 from Poona, being white, sparsely powdered with reddish 

 spots. In some the red colour is congregated at one or other 

 end of the egg, leaving the other half with spots only, while in 

 some very handsome specimens the whole of the egg is clouded 

 with reddish-brown and chestnut, leaving the white ground- 

 colour invisible. Axis, 1-55-17 inch; diam., 1-2-1-25. 



THE HONEY-KITES. GENUS PERNIS. 

 Perm's, Cuvier, Regne Anim. i. p. 322 (1817). 

 Type, P. apivorus (L.). 



The Honey-Kites, or Perns, generally but erroneously called 

 Honey-" Buzzards " in works on Natural History, are birds of 

 the Old World only, their place in North and South America 

 being taken by the Grey Kite-Falcons (Ictinia), and in the 



