MILVUS MIGRANS. 
Black Kite. 
Falco migrans, Bodd. Tab. de PI. Enl., p. 28, no. 472. 
Accipiter milvus, Pall. Zoos;. Rosso-Asiat., tom. i. p. 356. 
Falco ater et F. austriacus, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 262. 
fusco-ater, Meyer, Tascbenb. Deutscbl. Vog., tom. i. p. 27, et tom. viii. p. 11. 
■ ater et F.fusciis, Brehm, Vog. Deutscbl., p. 53. 
Milvus niger, Briss. Orn., tom. i. p. 413. 
austriacus et F. ater. Band. Orn., tom. ii. p. 149. 
Hgdroictinia atra, Kaup, Class, der Sang. n. Vdg., p. 115. 
Milvus (Hydroictinia) migrans, Gray, Hand-list of Birds, p. 26. 
In 1867 Mr. Hancock made known the circumstance of an Individual of this species having been killed in 
Northumberland ; and almost simultaneously a specimen was transmitted to me from Northern Australia, — 
facts which will give the reader an Idea of liow widely this species ranges over the globe. That there might 
be no mistake in the matter, I submitted the Australian bird to the inspection of J. H. Gurney, Esq., who 
immediately said it was Identical with the European Mikus migrans ; and Mr. Hancock’s testimony will, I 
am sure, be deemed sufficient as to the identity of the British-killed or Northumberland example. Either 
as a bird of passage or as a migrant this species is said to inhabit most of the central portions of Europe, 
Asia Minor, and almost the whole of Africa ; we also find it in the lists of the birds of many other countries. 
“ The geographical distribution of the Black Kite ” says Professor Newton, in his edition of Yarrell’s 
‘ British Birds,’ is extensive. Though not found in Norway, Sweden, or Finland, in Russia it reaches as 
far to the north as Archangel, and thence across Siberia, becoming rarer to the eastward, and hardly observed 
beyond the Lena. It is said by Pallas to winter in Persia, where De Philippi also found It. It is very 
common in the Caucasus ; and Messrs. Dickson and Ross obtained it at Erzeroum. In Palestine, according 
to Canon Tristram, it arrives about the beginning of March in immense numbers, and scatters itself over 
the whole country. There is much discrepancy in the accounts of recent travellers as to its occurrence 
in Egypt, some stating that it is very abundant there, and others that they never met with it, and that a 
near ally {JMllms cegyptius) must have been mistaken for it. The explanation of the difficulty probably lies 
in the fact that, while M. CBgyptlus is a resident in Egypt, M. migrans is a bird of passage only and may not 
always stop for the convenience of other travellers on its way down or up the Nile valley. Drs. Von Heuglin 
and E. A. Brehm include it as a bird of Eastern Kordofan and Abyssinia and Mr. Blanford ; found it to be 
extremely common both In the highlands and lowlands of the latter country. Mr. Chapman sent specimens 
procured on the Zambesi to Mr. Layard ; and Mr. Edward Newton shot a bird, pronounced by Mr. Gurney 
to be of this speeies, in Madagascar. Mr. Layard also records an example killed at Colesberg, in the Cape 
Colony; and Andersson met with it in Darnara Land, where it arrives in autumn in large numbers, and 
remains throughout the breeding-season. In Western Africa it has been obtained at Bissao and on the 
Niger. It occurs in Morocco, and is very common in Algeria, breeding in the Atlas, but not occurring to 
the south of that range of mountains. In Europe it is said to be met with occasionally in Portugal and in 
Spain, where it breeds, as it also does in several parts of France. It does not seem to have occurred in 
Belgium ; but the Leyden Museum contains a specimen killed in Holland.” 
With respect to Its solitary occurrence in England Mr. Hancock says (in ‘ The Ibis ’ for 1867, p. 253) ; — 
“ A fine mature male example of the Black Kite, Milvus migrans, came into my possession in a fresh state 
on the 11th of May, 1866. It was taken in a trap by Mr. F Fulger, the Duke of Northumberland’s 
gamekeeper, a few days before, in the Red-deer park at Alnwick. This is, I believe, the first time that this 
fine rapacious bird has occurred in Britain. The plumage was in very good condition, except on the lower 
part of the body (where it had sustained some injury from the trap), and agrees with that of mature 
specimens, in my collection, which I received from the Continent some years ago. It was proved by dissection 
to be a male.” 
Throughout the whole of the countries embraced in its wide range the Black Kite is migratory, proceeding 
northward in spring and returning southward in autumn — thereby fully meriting the earliest appellation, 
that of mlgraris, bestowed upon it by Boddaert. 
Mr. Salvin, writing of the bird as seen by him in the Eastern Atlas, says, in ‘The Ibis’ for 1859, p. 184: — 
“ During the breeding-season it is much more abundant in the Souk-Harras district than M. regalls. 
