508 ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES 



Suez Canal, but only once in Palestine, in the Jordan valley, 

 close to the Dead Sea. 



12. ELANUS MELANOPTERUS. Black-winged Kite. 



This beautiful bird of prey was first observed at Beliane on 

 the Nile, and from thence to the Nubian frontier was every- 

 where seen in suitable localities. By the 1st of March it had 

 already paired, and was hunting its prey in couples. Single 

 trees near villages, little gardens and palm-groves, telegraph- 

 poles, mud heaps and walls among the waving corn-fields, 

 embankments by canals, and solitary trees by the sides of 

 pools are the favourite haunts of these birds. They have no 

 fear of man, and one can walk right up to them and shoot them 

 within a few paces ; even when missed, they circle round the 

 sportsman, inquisitively, but without taking alarm, and pre- 

 sently settle down quite close to him. In its flight and in its 

 restless butterfly way of fluttering about, the Black-winged 

 Kite is undeniably a most peculiar bird of prey. 



13. MILVUS ATER. Black Kite. 



In company with the Parasitic Kite, the Black Kite is 

 distributed over the whole of Egypt, but is not so common as 

 the former, nor so bold in its behaviour in the towns. It 

 certainly flies about the houses, and especially the towns on 

 the banks of the Nile, still it does not come so close to men 

 and dogs as its relative. The Parasitic Kite is always the 

 first at a carcass, and the Black Kite does not follow it until 

 a few minutes later. In Palestine one comes across the 

 Black Kite only, and here and there a Common Kite. 



About Jerusalem and on the Jordan I saw many Black 

 Kites, but not such numbers of them as in Africa. 



14. MILVUS MIGRANS. Parasitic Kite. 



This bold bird, which is to be seen in wearisome abundance 



