THE BLACK-SHOULDEEED KITE. 
205 
Genus ELANUS, Savigny, 
578. ELANUS C^RULEUS. 
THE BLACK-SHOULDERED KITE. 
Falco caeruleus, I)esf. Mem. Acad. Roy. des Sciences^ 1787, p. 503, pi. 15. Falco 
melanopterus, Daud. TraiU, ii. p. 152. Elanus melanopterus, Jerd. B. 
Ind. i. p. 112 ; Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 338 ; id. Nests and Eggs, p. 56 ; id. 
S. F. i. p. 21, iii. p. 37 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 60. Elanus caeruleus, Sharpe, Cat. 
Birds B. Mus. i. p. 336 ; Dresser, Birds Eur. v. p. 663, pi. ; David et Oust. Ois. 
Chine, p. 17 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 85 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 572 ; Hume 
8r Dav. S. F. vi. p. 26 ; Gurney, Ms, 1879, p. 332 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 83 ; 
Oa^65, /S'. i^. X. p. 181. 
Description. — Male and female. Lores_, forehead^ eye- streaky lower 
plumage^ axillaries and under wing-coverts Avhite ; a small patch in front 
of the eye and a narrow streak over the eye black ; lesser wing-coverts 
black ; the whole upper plumage and wings ashy grey_, the tips of the 
primaries shaded with brown ; central tail-feathers and the outer webs of 
the next pair ashy grey ; the inner webs of these and the whole four outer 
pairs of feathers pure white. 
The young have the upper plumage ashy brown with buffy tips ; the 
greater coverts and quills are tipped with dull white ; there are narrow 
rusty shaft-stripes on the breast and flanks. 
Legs deep yellow ; claws black ; bill black ; gape and cere pale yellow ; 
iris crimson or orange-red ; eyelids plumbeous. 
Length 12*7 inches, tail 5*5, wing 10, tarsus 1*3, bill from gape 1*1. 
The female is about the same size as the male. 
The Black-shouldered Kite appears to be generally distributed over Ar- 
rakan and Pegu in the low-lying portions of the country. Mr. Davison did 
not observe it in Tenasserim, except in the northern portion near Thatone. 
It ranges westwards through India into Southern Europe, and it occurs 
over the whole of Africa. To the east it ranges into China and Cochin 
China. 
This small Kite appears to visit Pegu only in the rains. I observed it 
every year from July to about the middle of October. It was very common 
in the plains, which at that time of the year are inundated, between the 
Pegu and the Sittang rivers. It has the habit of hovering in the air like 
the Kestril. In India it breeds from November to January, constructing 
its nest in a tree and laying three eggs, which are white blotciied with 
rusty red. 
