Order FALC0NIF0RME8 
No. 307. 
Family AQUILIDM. 
ELANUS SCRIPTUS. 
LETTER-WINGED KITE. 
(Plate 260 .) 
Elantjs SCRIPTUS Grould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1842, p. 80 ; South Australia. 
Elanus scrij)tus Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1842, p. 80 ; id., Birds Austr., Vol. I., pi. 24, 
1848 ; Sturt, Exped. Centr. Austr., Vol. II., App., p. 15, 1849 (Central) ; Gould, Handb. 
Birds Austr., Vol. I., p. 55, 1865 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., Vol. I., p. 340, 
1874 ; Ramsay, Cat. Austr. Accip., p. 43, 1876 ; id., Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. II., 
p. 177, 1878 ; Gurney, Ibis 1879, p. 334 ; id.. List Dium. Birds Prey, p. 84, 1884 ; 
Broadbent, Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensland, Vol. III., p. 25, 1887 (Q.) ; Ramsay, 
Tab. List Austr. Birds, p. 1, 1888 ; North, Austr. Mus. Cat., no. 12, p. 15, 1890 ; 
id., ib., no. 4, p. 47, 1898 ; Hall, Key Birds Austr., p. 2, 1899 ; CampbeU, Nests and 
Eggs Austr. Birds, Vol. I., p. 28, 1901 ; Hall, Key Birds Austr., 2nd Ed., p. 2, 1906 ; 
Batey, Emu, Vol. VII., p. 3, 1907 (Viet.) ; Mathews, Handl. Birds Austral., p. 42, 
1908 ; Stone, Emu, Vol. XII., p. 113, 1912 (Viet.) ; North, Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., 
no. 1, Vol. III., p. 253, 1912 ; Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 251, 1912 ; 
id., List Birds Austr., p. 109, 1913 ; Witmer Stone, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. T., 
p. 146, 1913. 
Distribution. South Queensland ; New South Wales ; Victoria ; South Australia. 
Adult male. Upper-surface for the most part pale grey, paler and inclining to white on 
the head, hind-neck, lower back, and outer tail-feathers ; upper wing-coverts, 
axillaries and under wing-coverts black ; outer edge of wing white ; inner webs 
of the primary-quills mottled with white, the white increasing in extent on the 
inner webs of the secondaries ; a spot in front of the eye black, which is extended 
in a narrow line above the eye as well as a narrow ring encircling the latter ; throat 
and under-surface white. BiU black; cere yellow; feet yellow; iris orange. Total 
length 370 mm. ; culmen 18, wing 275, tail 144, tarsus 33. Figured. Collected 
in Victoria in December, 1902. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male, but larger. Wing 312 mm., culmen 20, tarsus 38. 
Collected at WoUongong, New South Wales, June 1893. 
Immature. “ Above ashy-brown, the tips of all the feathers more or less margined with 
white, except those on back of the neck and interscapular region. Those parts 
of the wing black in the adult are of a blackish-brown, margined with white near 
the primaries and on the shoulders.” (North.) 
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