THE BLACK-SHOULDERED KITE. 205 



Genus ELANUS, Savigny. 



578. ELANUS CJERULEUS. 



THE BLACK-SHOULDERED KITE. 



Falco caeruleus, Desf. Mem. Acad. Roy. des Sciences, 1787, p. 503, pi. 15. Falco 

 xnelanopterus, Daud. Traite, ii. p. 152. Elanus melanopterus, Jerd. $. 

 Ind. i. p. 112; Jfume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 338; id. Nests and Eggs, p. 56; id. 

 S. F. i. p. 21, iii. p. 37 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. GO. Elanus caeruleus, Sharpe, Cat. 

 Birds B. Mus. i. p. 336 ; Dresser, Birds Eur. v. p. 663, pi. ; David et Oust. Ois. 

 Chine, p. 17 ; Leyge, Birds Ceylon, p. 85 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 572 ; Hume 

 $ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 26 ; Gurney, Ibis, 1879, p. 332 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 83 ; 

 Oates, S. F. x. p. 181. 



Description. Male and female. Lores, forehead, eye-streak, lower 

 plumage, axillaries and under wing-coverts white ; a small patch in front 

 of the eye and a narrow streak over the eye black ; lesser wing-coverts 

 black ; the whole upper plumage and wings ashy grey, the tips of the 

 primaries shaded with brown ; central tail-feathers and the outer webs of 

 the next pair ashy grey ; the inner webs of these and the whole four outer 

 pairs of feathers pure white. 



The young have the upper plumage ashy brown with bufly tips ; the 

 greater coverts and quills are tipped with dull white ; there are narrow 

 rusty shaft-stripes on the breast and flanks. 



Legs deep yellow ; claws black ; bill black ; gape and cere pale yellow ; 

 iris crimson or orange-red; eyelids plumbeous. 



Length 127 inches, tail 5'5, wing 10, tarsus 1-3, bill from gape 1*1. 

 The female is about the same size as the male. 



The Black-shouldered Kite appears to be generally distributed over Ar- 

 rakan and Pegu in the low-lying portions of the country. Mr. Davison did 

 not observe it in Tenasserim, except in the northern portion near Thatone. 



It ranges westwards through India into Southern Europe, and it occurs 

 over the whole of Africa. To the east it ranges into China and Cochin 

 China. 



This small Kite appears to visit Pegu only in the rains. I observed it 

 every year from July to about the middle of October. It was very common 

 in the plains, which at that time of the year are inundated, between the 

 Pegu and the Sittang rivers. It has the habit of hovering in the air like 

 the Kestril. In India it breeds from November to January, constructing 

 its nest in a tree and laying three eggs, which are white blotched with 

 rusty red. 



