BLACK-SHOULDERED KITE. 
** Inhabits New HolUind, but it is not very common. The specimen from 
which the above description was taken was caught alive, and kept for two 
months, being fed with small birds, fish, etc.” 
This bird appears to have been unrecognised until 1843 when G. R. Gray, 
from examination of the Lambert Drawings, revived it for the bird determined 
Vigors and Horsfield as Elanus melano'pteTus, but afterwards described by 
Gould as Elanus notatus. Almost simultaneously Gould described a very 
similar bird as Elanus scriptus. In his “ Birds of Australia ” Gould accepted 
Gray’s determination, figuring the two birds as Elanus axillaris and Elanus 
notatus. Gould wrote : “ On reference to the synonymy given above, it will 
be seen that neither Mr. Vigors nor myself had sufficiently studied the 
Australian Raptorial Birds described by the venerable Latham to be aware 
that he had assigned the specific designation of axillaris to this Kite: the 
terms melanopterus of Vigors, and notatus of myself, must therefore be 
reduced to synonyms.’^ 
This usage gained acceptance without criticism. 
In the Hist. Coll. Nat. Hist. Brit. Mus.^ Vol. II., 1906, Sharpe gave a long 
account of the Watling Drawings, and on p. 109 wrote : 
“ 4. Painting of an Elanus, with the following note by the artist : 
‘ Natural size. The head of this drawing is rather too large and long, the biU 
should be smaller, and more rounded in towards the breast. I had the bird 
alive three months, and fed it on small birds and fish, etc.’ 
“ Nos. 5, 6. Two more paintings of an Elanus, one-half and one-third 
natural size. Native name Geo-ga-rack. Latham founds on this description 
his AxiUary Falcon {Suppl. II. Gen. Synopsis, p. 42). He says that it 
‘ inhabits New Holland, but is not very common. The specimen from 
which the above description was taken, was caught alive, and kept for ten 
{sic) months, being fed with small birds, fish, etc.’ This note is taken from 
Watling’s MSS., but is not acknowledged. This picture becomes the type 
of Latham’s Axillary Falcon {^Falco axillaris Lath., Ind. Orn. Suppl., 
p. ix.). 
“7. Represents Elanus, which Latham in his MS. list places as a 
variety of his Axillary Falcon, which is probably the case.” 
No complication would have ensued had there been only one species of 
Elanus in Australia, but there are two, and the question arises : “ How did 
Latham get the name Axillary ? ” In the Latin description, as I have pointed 
out, is written “ axillaribus nigris ” : m the English no mention is made of 
axillaries, but the name AxiUary Falcon is used, while we read : “A large 
long patch of black also occupies the whole of the inner part of the wing 
when closed.” 
VOL. V. 
201 
