The Square-tailed Kite .



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THE SQUARE-TAILED KITE.


Lophoictinia isura.


By J. Lewis Bonhote, M.A., F.L.S.


One day in June 1903 I went to Castang’s in Leadenhall

Market in search of novelties, and there in a small cage I saw

for the first time the subject of this article. His plumage was

not good and he looked sleepy, however so rare a bird was not to

be missed, and in due course of time he became an inmate of my

aviaries.


I may as well sum him up once for all as the tamest and

most sluggish of the Raptores that I have ever met, and I

suspect that much of his tameness is due to the fact that it is too

much trouble to move. When excited or alarmed, which is rare,

he raises his crest, as shown in the accompanying photo., but

otherwise the feathers all lie flat, and no sign of a crest is

visible. In general shape and build he is much like a Swallow,

with extremely long wings, large tail and short legs, and it is

to be supposed that in correlation with this build he must spend

the greater part of his time on the wing.


The subject of this paper, when first received, was evidently

a bird in its first year, having presumably been born in November

1902. The general colour of its plumage was rufous, each feather

being broadly marked or streaked, especially on the upper parts,

with dark brown. I11 the following October it started to moult,

but, owing probably to the advent of winter, the moult was

unduly protracted and not fully completed until the end of the

following May. The new plumage was similar to the last, but

darker on the back, lighter on the head and redder on the under¬

parts, while, after the next moult, which was accomplished

between May and July last year, it assumed the fully adult

plumage, as figured in Gould’s Birds of Australia.


In the adult, the general colour of the upperparts,

primaries, and tail is dark brown, the latter showing three or

four faint bars; the rump and upper tail coverts lighter, trans¬

versely barred with brown. The head is greyish, each feather

having a dark centre, but over the crown and neck the greyish

portions of the feathers become rufous. The whole of the under-



