THE BLACK-SHOULDERED KITES. 
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primary-coverts and quills grey, the latter white at the base, 
the shafts black ; the inner quills paler and the inner second- 
aries darker grey, like the back ; tail ashy-white, with the two 
centre feathers more ashy-grey ; under surface of body pure 
white, including the under wing-covcrts and a.xillaries ; cere, 
orbits, and feet yellow ; bill black ; iris carmine. Total length, 
i3'2 inches; culmen, i'o5; wing, io‘6; tail, 5‘6; tarsus, I’q. 
Adult Female. — Similar to the male. Total length, 1 2 '5 inches; 
wing, io'2. 
Young Birds. — These differ somewhat from the adults, being 
ashy-broivn, broad ashy-white tips to the feathers ; tail also 
ashy-brown, whiter on the inner web ; wing-coverts black, as in 
the adults, with huffy -white tips ; forehead and eyebrow white, 
with narrow rufous-brown streaks ; sides of face and under 
surface of body silky-white, the centre of the breast streaked with 
rufous, as also the flanks ; the sides of the breast washed with 
r ifous ; iris light brownish-yellow, or pale salmon-colour. 
Eange in Great Britain. — Has only been noticed once in 
Ireland, a single specimen having occurred “on the bog of 
Horsestown in Co. Meath in Ireland ; it is now in the posses- 
sion of Sir John Dillon, at lismullen” (More, list of Irish 
Birds, 1885, p. 6). 
Eange outside the British Islands. — The Black-shouldered Kite 
is found all over tropical Africa and even visits Northern Africa, 
where it breeds and in some localities is not rare. It crosses into 
Southern Spain, where, however, it is not common. The same 
may be said of its occurrences in South-eastern Europe. It 
is found also in the Indian I’eninsula. 
Hahits. — Colonel Irby says that this species is easily recog- 
nised on the wing by its greyish-white colour. It has also a 
peculiar habit of hovering at about thirty yards from the 
ground, with the wings forming a sort of V or acute angle with 
the body, never bringing them level with one another, till it 
flics off to take up a fresh position. The birds are rather wary 
when thus engaged in hunting for their prey. In India, Mr. 
A. O. Hume states that it is nowhere seen in any numbers, 
though he once saw more than a dozen pairs hunting over the 
dry reedy bed of a jheel in the Delhi district ; they feed mostly 
