BLACK KITE. 



MILVUS MIGRANS (Boddaert) . 



Falco migrans, Boddaert, Table des Planches Enl. p. 28. 



no. 472 (1783). 

 Falco ater, Naum. i. p. 340. 



Milvus migrans, Yarr. ed. 4, i. p. 97; Dresser, v. p. 651. 



Milan noir, French ; Schwarzer Milan, German ; Milano 

 negro, Spanish. 



I only use the ordinary English name for this species 

 for want of a better, as the bird is certainly not 

 "black," and to call it "migratory" would not distin- 

 guish it from other members of its family. The only 

 recorded occurrence of this Kite in this country is that 

 of a specimen taken in a trap at Alnwick, Northumber- 

 land, and brought in a fresh state to the late Mr. John 

 Hancock on May 11, 1866; this bird, an adult male, is 

 now in the Museum of Newcastle-on-Tyne. This bird 

 is a common summer visitor to the plains of Central 

 Europe, Southern France, Spain, and North Africa ; in 

 all these countries I have observed it, but my principal 

 acquaintance with it was formed in Central and Southern 

 Spain ; in Andalucia it arrives early in March, and from 

 that period till the end of September may be met witli 



