103 



COMMON KITE. 



Falco Milvus. F.fuscoferrugineoque varius, capite albidofusco 



striato, cauda ferruginea forficata. 

 Kite with brown and ferruginous variegations, whitish head 



streaked with brown, and ferruginous forked tail. 

 Falco Milvus. F. ceraflava, cauda forficata, corporeferrugineo, 



capite albidiore. Lin. Syst. Nat. 

 Milvus. Gesn. Aldr. Will. fyc. 

 Kite. Perm. Brit. Zool, AS. j£ It+t /3 . 



The Kite is so common in England as to super 7 

 sede the necessity of any very particular descrip- 

 tion of its figure and manners. Its general length 

 is something more than two feet, and its breadth 

 five feet : the bill is two inches long, and very much 

 bent or hooked at the end ; the cere yellow, and 

 the irides straw-coloured : the whole upper part of 

 the body is ferruginous brown, the edges of the 

 feathers brighter or yellower than the middle: the 

 £ail bright ferruginous: the edges both of wings 

 and tail dusky or blackish : the head and neck are 

 pale ash-colour, or whitish, the feathers being of a 

 narrow or slender form on those parts, and each 

 marked down the shaft by a dark streak: the under 

 parts of the body are yellow-ferruginous, with 

 longitudinal dusky spots : the legs yellow, and the 

 claws strong and brown: the tail is forked, by 

 which mark it is at once distinguished from every 

 other British bird of prey. 



No one can be unacquainted with the elegant 

 appearance of this bird while sailing aloft in its 



