FALCONING. NAUCLERUS. 47 



able for their gliding and buoyant flight. They are not 

 numerous, and only one species occurs in Britain. 



8. MlLVUS REGALIS. RED KlTE. 



Male with the upper parts reddish-brown, marked with 

 longitudinal blackish-brown streaks, the lower parts light 

 brownish-red, with narrower dusky streaks. Female with 

 the head and upper part of the neck greyish-white, streaked 

 with dusky ; the other parts as in the male. Young of a 

 duller brownish-red, with the central dark markings of the 

 feathers broader. Tail deeply emarginate. 



Male, 25, 61, 19, 1 T 6 ^, 2, 1 T V, '. Female, 27, 63. 



The Kite is distinguished from the other native birds of 

 this family by the superior elegance of its buoyant flight, as 

 well as by its elongated wings, and deeply emarginate tail. 

 It is generally distributed, but of rare occurrence in any dis- 

 trict. When searching for food it moves along at a mode- 

 rate height, wheeling and gliding in an undulatory course, 

 and proceeding at intervals \vith motionless wings. It preys 

 on small quadrupeds, reptiles, insects, occasionally birds, and 

 sometimes eats of carrion of various kinds. The nest, which 

 is bulky, is placed in the fork of a tree. The eggs, two or 

 three, are of a short oval form, 2 T 2 ^ inches in length, 1 T 9 2 in 

 breadth, white, with a few reddish-brown dots or spots. 



Common Kite. Gled, Glead. Red Gled. Salmon-tailed 

 Gled or Kite. Crotched-tailed Puttock. 



FalcoMilvus,Linn. Syst. Nat.i. 126. FalcoMilvus,Temm. 

 Man. d'Ornith. i. 59. Milvus regalis, Red Kite, MacGillivray, 

 Brit. Birds, iii. 266. 



GENUS VIII. NAUCLERUS. SWALLOW-KITE. 



Bill short, broader than high at the base, much compressed 

 toward the end, of moderate strength ; upper mandible with 

 the dorsal line declinato-decurvate from the base, the sides 

 nearly flat, the edges with a slight festoon, the tip decimate, 

 slender, acute ; lower mandible with the angle very wide, 

 the dorsal line slightly convex, the edges much decurved 

 toward the end, which is rounded. Tongue somewhat 

 decurved, emarginate, and finely papillate at the base, flat 

 above, its tip narrow and acutely emarginate ; oesophagus of 

 nearly uniform width, being destitute of crop, and thus 



