ALLIED KITE. 
They seem to leave here in October, and return about February-March, 
and only an odd one is to be seen in the hot season. Mr. M’Larty, the 
manager of the station, gives this as his opinion, and considers they go 
to spend the wet season about the centre of the Kimberley goldfields (the 
high country about Hall’s Creek). On 14-3-00 they were in large numbers 
about Livuringa station.” 
In my “ List ” I used as the specific name Milvus korscJiufif based on 
Accipiter Jcorschun S. G. Gmelin, Nov. Comm. Acad. Petrop., Vol. XV., p. 444, 
1771 : South Russia. 
In the recent B.O.U. List this name was rejected, the reasons being 
stated thus, p. 380 : “ Sharpe proposed to use Gmelin’s Accipiter Tcorschun 
{Nov. Comm. Petrop., Vol. XV., 1771, p. 444) for the Black Kite, but 
the description seems quite unintelligible, and the figure appears to 
represent a Marsh-Harrier, so that the Committee propose to retain Milvus 
migrans (Bodd.) 1783 (c/. Ihis, 1874, p. 360; 1875, p. 503; 1879, p. 72; 
and Newton Diet. Birds^ p. 491).” 
This conclusion was acquiesced in by the Authors of the Hand-List 
of British Birds, who published the correction in British Birds, Vol. IX., p. 6, 
1915, thus : Milvus migrans migrans Boddaert “ instead of M. Ic. Jcorschun 
(Gm.) which must be abandoned, as the description of Accipiter Jcorschun 
S. G. Gmelin does not agree with that of any Milvus, in fact it appears 
to refer to a young Circus mruginosus, with the description of which the 
author seems to have mixed his notes referring to a Milvus."" 
I would add I agree that the description is not applicable to 
any Milvus as at present understood, but would go further and state 
that Accipiter Jcorschun is based absolutely on the immature of Circus 
ceruginosus, and that there is no reference to any Milvus in our sense 
of that word. When Gmelin made his comparisons he wrote '' similis 
milvo,"" and stated it was so like in manners, etc., that it might only be 
a variety and not a distinct species. This is the only reference to “ milpis,"" 
and it appears to have been overlooked that at that time “ milvus "" 
was used for the Harrier. In the N ederlandsche Vogeler, Vol. I., published 
in 1770 by Nozeman and Sepp, there is a plate of a Marsh-Harrier 
headed “ Milvus ceruginosus,"" and the text to this also bears the same 
heading. A nest is also given which is entitled “ Milvi nidus"" 
This usage of the name Milvus appears in the Additions and Corrections 
of Sherborn’s Index Anirrmlium, p. lix., as the earliest introduction of that 
name genericaUy, and if that were accepted a change would be necessary, 
as Milvus would have to replace Circus and Hydrictinia would come into 
use vice Milvus. I have not made this alteration, as Xozeman and Sepp 
VOL. V. 
177 
