LETTER-WINGED KITE. 
Nest. Composed of sticks and lined with leaves. Very similar to the former species. 
Eggs. Clutch, three to four. Bluish-white, sparsely blotched with brown, sometimes 
only at one end. Axis 45-48 mm. ; diameter 35-36. 
Breeding-season. August to November. 
Captain S. A. White observes : “ Elanus scriptus is a much rarer bird in 
South Australia than the Black-shouldered variety and they seem to keep 
more to the interior. It is also more ‘wary and flies with more rapidity, as 
far as my observations have taken me ; their food chiefly consists of small 
reptiles, grasshoppers and other insects.” 
Batey {Emu, Vol. VII., p. 3, 1907) has written : “ About 1888 I saw a 
bird of this species at Toolem (Melton Shire, Victoria) and three near 
Mt. Macedon. One of the latter was shot, and its identity established. It 
would appear to be the rarest of the Hawk tribe in above region.” 
Gould noted : “ It is a denizen of the interior of the country. Captain 
Sturt having obtained it at the Depot, and Mr. White, of the Beedbeds, South 
Australia, informing me that he found this species “in great numbers on 
Cooper’s Creek, between 27° and 28°, always in companies of from ten to 
twenty or thirty in number. It flies when near the ground with a 
heavy flapping motion, but occasionally soars very high, when its 
movements are very graceful. It is rather inquisitive, but not so bold as 
Milvus affinis. It nests in companies as near each other as possible.” 
It does not, however, appear to have been commonly observed by other 
expeditions into the interior, and it is possible that Mr. White met with 
a local irruption such as is described by Mr. Syd Jackson in relation 
with the previous species, where he mentions that this bird appeared with 
it but in much less numbers. Hill, Captain WBite and others simply 
observe that they saw soHtary birds which they assigned to the previous 
species, but if seen from behind might just as well be this one. They 
did not meet with either in any numbers, and undoubtedly both are rare 
birds, this one apparently being much more uncommon and niore 
confined to the interior. 
Not much has been written concerning this bird, and North in the 
Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, only gives a couple of notes, which I here 
transcribe. 
Mr. K. H. Bennett’s observations read : “ Elanus scriptus can only be 
considered an occasional visitant in this locality (Mossgiel, New South Wales). 
In 1864, when this part of the country was first occupied, it was infested 
for some months by at least two species of rats, and preying upon them 
were large numbers of the Letter-winged Kite. Suddenly the rodents 
disappeared, and with them the Kites. Only one occasion since (in 1870) 
VOL. V. 
209 
