THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 696.— June, 1899. 



THE NESTING OF THE BLACK KITE (MILVUS 

 MIGRANS) IN THE TERRITORY OF VERONA. 



By Count Ettore Arrigoni degli Oddi, 



Member of the Eoyal Venetian Institute of Sciences. 



The Black Kite (Milvus migrans, Boddaert) * has, until now, 

 been considered a bird rarely seen in any part of Italy, occurring 

 in some places as a rare straggler, and almost unknown ; in 

 others as a breeding species, but without becoming permanently 

 established. 



* Mr. Seebohm ('British Birds,' vol. i. p. 80), after having criticised 

 Messrs. Newton and Dresser, who call this species by the name of M. 

 migrans, Boddaert (1783), and Dr. Sharpe, who called it M. korschun, 

 Grnelin (1771), adds that some future ornithologist, evincing more zeal than 

 discretion, may adopt the name of M. milano, Gerini (1767), in homage to 

 the law of priority. Mr. Seebohm has here fallen into a singular error ; the 

 bird drawn by Gerini on plate i. No. 38, of vol. i. of his remarkable work, 

 ' La Storia degli Uccelli,' is not our M. migrans, but simply a variety of 

 Buteo vulgaris, and the identical bird which Savi elevated to the rank of 

 specific rank under the title of Falco pojana. Italian ornithologists all agree 

 in referring Gerini's milano to Buteo vulgaris, and they place the same 

 name under the synonyms of this species. Gerini speaks of M. migrans in 

 the course of his work, but under the title of " Falco detto Nibbio nero." 

 These are his words (I. c. p. 71): — "Falco detto Nibbio nero , Falx = Falco 

 Milvus niger Schwenk et Sibbald, &c. Asturis magnitudine, remigibus 

 majoribus nigris, cauda supra fusca, collo et uropygio albicantibus ; cera 

 lutea, rostro nigro, pedibus gracilioribus luteis." He does not mention it as 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. III., June, 1899. R 



