FALCONING. NAUCLERUS. 47 
able for tbeir gliding and buoyant flight. They are not 
numerous, and only one species occurs in Britain. 
8. Milvus regalis. Bed Kite. 
Male with the upper parts reddish-brown, marked with 
longitudinal blackish-brown streaks, the lower parts light 
brownish-red, with narrower dusky streaks. Female with 
the head and upper part of the neck greyish-white, streaked 
with dusky ; the other parts as in the male. Young of a 
duller brownish-red, with the central dark markings of the 
feathers broader. Tail deeply emarginate. 
Male, 25, 61, 19, 1/^, 2, 1/^, Female, 27, 63. 
The Kite is distinguished from the other native birds of 
this family by the superior elegance of its buoyant flight, as 
well as by its elongated wings, and deeply emarginate tail. 
It is generally distributed, but of rare occurrence in any dis- 
trict. When searching for food it moves along at a mode- 
rate height, wheeling and gliding in an undulatory course, 
and proceeding at intervals wdth motionless wings. It preys 
on small quadrupeds, reptiles, insects, occasionally birds, and 
sometimes eats of carrion of various kinds. The nest, which 
is bulky, is placed in the fork of a tree. The eggs, two or 
three, are of a short oval form, 2j\^ inches in length, 1/^ in 
breadth, white, with a few reddish-brown dots or spots. 
Common Kite. Gled, Glead. Bed Gled. Salmon-tailed 
Gled or Kite. Crotched-tailed Puttock. 
Falco Milvus, Linn. Syst. Nat.i. 126 —Falco Milvus, Temm. 
Man. d’Ornith. i. 59. — Milvus regalis, Bed Kite, MacGillivray, 
Brit. Birds, iii. 266. ^ 
GENUS VIII. NAUCLEBUS. SWALLOW-KITE. 
Bill short, broader than high at the base, much compressed 
toward the end, of moderate strength ; upper mandible with 
the dorsal line declinato-decurvate from the base, the sides 
nearly flat, the edges with a slight festoon, the tip declinate, 
slender, acute j lower mandible with the angle very wide, 
the dorsal line slightly convex, the edges much decurved 
toward the end, which is rounded. Tongue somewhat 
decurved, emarginate, and finely papillate at the base, flat 
above, its tip narrow and acutely emarginate ; oesophagus of 
nearly uniform width, being destitute of crop, and thus 
