broadly striped with blackish brown ; upper parts dark hair-brown, with a metallic gloss on the back, 

 the feathers on the hind neck with dark central stripes ; those of the wing-coverts and a few of the 

 scapulars with lighter edges ; primaries black, excepting some of the inner ones, which are deep brown ; 

 secondaries blackish brown, the inner ones assimilating in colour to the back ; tail like the back, but 

 slightly duller and a trifle grey in tinge and with scarcely perceptible darker bars, being also but 

 slightly forked; throat dull white, striped with blackish brown; breast clove-brown with blackish 

 stripes, rest of the underparts deep ferruginous, each feather with a dark shaft-line ; under wing-coverts 

 rufous, varied with deep brown ; bill blackish horn, yellowish at the base of the lower mandible ; cere 

 pale yellow ; iris greyish, with a yellow tinge surrounded by a black line ; legs pale yellow ; claws black. 

 Total length about 22 inches, culmen l - 6, wing 17 - 0, tail ll - 2, tarsus 2'25. 



Female. Resembles the male, but is somewhat larger in size, rather darker, and a trifle more rufous in 

 general coloration. 



Nestling in down. Is distinguishable from the nestling of the common Kite, even when quite young, by 

 having the back darker. 



Young (Malta, September). Upper parts of a much duller brown than the adult, the feathers tipped with 

 yellowish white, which give3 it a very spotted appearance, crown and nape with these terminal spots 

 much larger, so as almost to hide the rest of the feathers ; throat brownish white, the feathers with 

 dark shafts ; rest of the underparts dull dark brown, becoming dull reddish brown on the abdomen, 

 every feather with the terminal portion, except on the edge, dull honey-colour, which gives the under- 

 parts the appearance of being marked with elongated oval spots of this latter colour ; quills and tail as 

 in the adult ; but the latter is tipped with dull brownish white, and the bars are more conspicuous. 



Obs. Mr. Sharpe, in his recently pubUshed ' Catalogue of Accipitres' (p. 322), has called the present species 

 Milvus korschun, founding this name on Gmelin's description of Accipiter korschun (N. Com. Petr. xv. 

 p. 444, 1771) ; but I cannot find any reasonable ground for believing that the bird described by Gmelin 

 could possibly have been a Black Kite, and, so far as I can judge, Mr. Sharpe is the first person who 

 has referred it to this species. Some years ago I tried, independently, to make out what several very 

 doubtful species described by Gmelin could be ; and I find from my note-book that I could not possibly 

 arrive at any decision respecting his Accipiter korschun, but thought it was probably a Marsh-Harrier. 

 I now ascertain, in working up the synonymy of the present species, that both J. F. Gmelin (Syst. Nat. 

 i. p. 261) and Pallas (Zoogr. Rosso- As. i. p. 356) insert Accipiter korschun as a synonym of the common 

 Kite ; and Nilsson, who has gone carefully into this question, puts it (Orn. Suec. i. p. 20) under Circus 

 oeruginosus, with the following remark: — "ad hunc pertinet, minime ad F. milvum ut Lath, vult." 

 Under these circumstances I feel that nothing can be done but to consign back this name to the 

 oblivion whence it has been, perhaps somewhat unnecessarily, brought up. 



The Black Kite inhabits Central and Southern Europe, visiting North-east Africa in the winter, 

 but breeding in West Africa, and occurring as far south as the Cape colony. In Asia it occurs 

 about as far as the Lena, and is common in Persia, but does not occur in India, and in Eastern 

 Siberia is replaced by Milvus melanotis. 



It has only on one occasion been known with certainty to have occurred in Great Britain. 

 Mr. John Hancock says (Ibis, 1867, p. 253) that he obtained an adult male in a fresh state on 

 the 11th May, 1866, which had been taken in a trap a few days previously in the Red-Deer Park 

 at Alnwick. Mr. Gray remarks (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 43) that " in the beginning of the present 



