THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
have these birds appeared in any numbers, and at that time the country was 
invaded with legions of mice. Since then only a few pairs have visited the 
district and remained only a short time, the last I saw being in 1882. I have 
never known an instance of their breeding here.” Mr. G. A. Heartland 
added: “During the journey of the Horn Scientific Expedition in Central 
Australia in 1894, the Letter- winged Kite was met with in pairs near McMinn’s 
Ridge, and were very numerous at times. They were generally seen flying 
over the coarse grass and saltbush, searching for rats and mice, lizards and 
grasshoppers, which abound in the sandhills.” 
Heartland’s experience confirms Mr. White’s as quoted by Gould, but the 
status of this species is unsatisfactorily known. It may be very rare or common 
in the interior, but aU the facts point to the former. 
Most of its history has been detailed under the previous species, but it 
seems unlikely to have any well-marked peculiarities of its owm as regards 
habits. If such were ascertained, they would become valuable assets in the 
consideration of the relationship of these two species. 
