BLACK-WINGED KITE. 129 
with uncommon energy, but I never -witnessed it strike a bird in the 
air. The Chanwa doubtless can and sometimes does seize its feathered 
prey on the wing." 
I collate the following from Heuglin's " Ornithologie Nordost Afrika's :" 
— "In the old bird, contrary to the description of Schlegel and Nau- 
mann, Heuglin says he always found the iris of a deep blood red, and 
in the younger birds a pink yellow ochre; in the unfledged birds am- 
ber brown. The Black-winged Kite is one of the most common birds 
of prey in Lower and Central Egypt, more rare about Assonan and 
in the north of Nubia. In the southern parts of Nubia, at Chartoum, 
in Abyssinia and Takah, the Bogos land, Kordofan, and on the 
Blue and White Nile it appears less frequently; and, according to 
Heuglin's observations, only in autumn and winter. It is less frequently 
seen during winter in Egypt. Its favourite resorts, before all others, 
are date groves, separate palm and other high trees in cultivated lands, 
and near the edges of the desert; also on islands of the Nile, in gar- 
dens and avenues. The male and female keep together throughout the 
year, but go out separately in search of food, which consists principally 
of bats, mice, and grasshoppers; also of desert lizards and birds. It 
catches the grasshoppers principally in its flight, and swallows them in 
the air. It will pounce upon small vertebrate animals after it has 
hovered over them some time from a considerable height in the air. 
Its flight is never very high nor rapid, but light and moderate. It 
often circles over stubble-fields and pastures, here and there suddenly 
halting or again settling on low bushes. It remains through the night 
on the summits of tall pines, near the stem, and it usually builds its 
nest in the same locality. Brehm (on the contrary) found the nest in 
January and March, on low citron and nabaq trees, containing three 
to five eggs or young. Heuglin found the nest in March and July, 
on isolated acacias. The nest is somewhat large, and consists of stalks, 
pieces of turf, palm fibres, and, according to Brehm, is lined through- 
out with the fur of mice and moles. 
The eggs are spotted and streaked irregularly with cherry brown on 
a greyish white ground, so that the white hardly appears through; 
length, one inch and a half by fourteen lines. Heuglin once found a 
nest with three young birds and one bad egg, which last remarkably 
resembled those of the Sparrow-hawk. The cry consists of a loud-toned 
and continued piping or whistling." 
From Le Vaillant we read, "It rests on the tops of trees, where 
the pure white of its stomach glistens in the sun; but when it flies it 
is by its piercing cry that its presence is announced. It lives upon 
large insects, such as grasshoppers, mantis, etc. ; and it chases the Crows 
VOL. I. S 
