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mi'lan (white kite), and hungeyer (hen-vulture) ; in Dutch, 
ti'owc-, in Italian, milvo, n'ibbfo, poyana. The Romans named 
it milvius , i. e. mollis avis , indolent bird. The Swedifh 
glada , and the old Englifli name gleacle, refer to its gliding 
motion. There are three varieties : i. Crown and throat 
cheftnut. 2. Cere greenifli ; body brownilh ; head, throat, 
and chin, cheftnut. 3. Coverts of the back violet; fea¬ 
thers tipt with a white fpot. 
53. Falco ater, the black kite. Cere and legs yel¬ 
low ; body above browni fh-black; head and body beneath 
whitifh ; tail forked. Ariftotle diftinguifhes this from 
the preceding, which he names fimply kite, and gives it 
the epithet of /Etolian, becattfe, in his time, it was pro¬ 
bably mod common in ^fEtolia. Vaillant fays, this is 
only the common kite before its fecond moult. Kites 
tor the mod part lay only two eggs, fometimes three ; but 
this Ipccies lays four. It is the falco ater of Gmelin, the 
Jchzvartzer milan and the brauner maid geyer of the Germans, 
and the black kite of Sibbald and Latham. It is fmaller 
than the common kite, its tail (lightly forked, its legs 
(lender; its egg is ferruginous, with dttlky and black 
fpots. They are migratory ; before the approach of win¬ 
ter, they traverfe the Black Sea, marfhalled in numerous 
lines, and return in the fame order about the beginning 
of April: they remain the whole winter in Egypt, and are 
fo tame, that they enter the cities, and alight upon the 
windows of the houfes; their fight is fo quick, and their 
flight fo fteady, that they catch in the’air the bits of 
meat that are thrown to them. 
54. Falco Auftriacus, the Auftrian kite. Cere and 
legs yellow ; legs fomewhat downy ; body above cheft¬ 
nut, beneath brick-duft colour fpotted with brown; tail 
forked. Biil yellow, with a black fpot ; angles of the 
mouth yellow; irids and claws black ; palate blue; front 
and throat white fpotted with brown; bead, breaft, and 
wings, cheftnut; tail fmall with blackifh bands ; feathers 
tipt with white. Inhabits the woods of Auftria; and 
feeds on birds and bats. 
55. Falco Brafilienfis, the Brafil kite. Feet yellow ; 
body tawny varied with white and yellow fpots ; tail va¬ 
riegated with white and brown. Bill and claws long, 
(harp, black; eyes and irids yellow ; breaft and belly 
often white; tail nine inches long. Inhabits Brazil; and 
is very deftru£live to poultry. 
56. Falco parafiticus, the parafite kite. The diftindlive 
marks of the kite are its forked tail, and long wings 
reaching to the extremity of the tail, which is very long 
alfo. Hence Vaillant was induced to place the African 
parafite, a new fpecies, in this divifion of rapacious birds. 
The tail of this is lefs forked than the common kite ; 
nor is the bird itfelf larger than the ringtail. The beak 
differs in being yellow, at the bafe blue. The feet are 
yellow, and the claws black. The top of the head, neck, 
fcapulars, and mantle, are in general tan-colour, but the 
quill of each feather has a tint of black, and they are 
light at their edges. The large upper wing-coverts are 
dill lighter on their edges. The larger wing-quills are 
black, the next lighter, and the fmalleft brown. The 
cheeks and throat are whitifh ; the breaft of the fame co¬ 
lour as the mantle. The belly, legs, and under tail-co¬ 
verts, are of a beautiful cinnamon colour: but the fea¬ 
thers ot this bird in general have a black ftroke along 
their ftem. . The tail is brown, with tranfverfe (tripes of 
a darker colour; and except the two outer feathers on 
each fide, they are light fawn colour at the ends. The 
eye is hazel. The female is larger than the male, but 
her colours are weaker. This (pecies Vaillant found in 
all the parts of Africa he vifited ; but moftly in thofe 
places where fmall game abounds, as among the Caffres 
and the Great Namaquois. The fettlers at the Cape 
call it kuyken-dief which (ignifies fowl-ftealer; indeed 
this is the word by which the Dutch defignate the kite 
in their own country. It is bolder than the common 
kite; the fight of man does not prevent it from attack¬ 
ing domeftic birds ; there is hardly an inhabited fpot 
VOL. VII. No, 418. 
c o. 
where fome of thefe depredators do not appear at a cer¬ 
tain hour of the day. “During my travels, (fays Vail¬ 
lant,) when encamped, I was fure to be attended by fe- 
veral, who perched on my waggons, and often carried 
away pieces of meat. When driven away by my Hot¬ 
tentots, they would return immediately, and their bold- 
nefs was very troublefome ; even the mufquet did not 
always rid us of thefe guefts; they would come back, 
although wounded. Thefe fmell-feafts (parafites) were 
fo ftrongly attradfed by our cooking meat in the open air, 
that they almoft tore'it from our hands.” From a great 
height thefe kites will plunge into the water after fifii, of 
which they are very fond. They hunt all kinds of fmall 
animals ; and the offal of the large beads, which Vaillant 
killed for his own ufe, were very acceptable to them. 
They will eat carrion, and difpute the poftellion of it 
with the ravens, their mortal enemies ; in vain do thefe 
laft fly oft' with their prey ; the kites follow them, and 
make them furrender it. They fight furioufly with the 
buzzards, and many others of the rapacious kinds. In 
thefe battles, the kite has the advantage of a rapid flight, 
and vaft celerity in its movements ; it rifes to a prodigious 
height, and fometimes, but rarely, utters a piercing cry. 
“ When once (fays Vaillant) thefe birds had difeovered 
my camp, I was hire to have them every day at the fame 
hour, and their number increafed at each vifit, fo that we 
were fometimes befet by a dozen at a time. On the bor¬ 
ders of the Gamtoos, I remarked one who came regu¬ 
larly every morning at eleven, and every afternoon at 
four. I was fure it was the fame, becaufe it wanted four 
or five of the middle wing-quills, which I had knocked 
oft' by a (hot, and which occafioned a gap I could not 
miftake.” This hab.it of returning regularly to the fame 
place at a certain hour, Vaillant thinks to be peculiar to 
the kites, and common to them both in Europe and 
Africa ; for he fays he never failed to kill a kite, if fuch 
was his intention, by watching for it at the time and place 
he had before feen it in. 
The parafite builds either on trees or among rocks, but 
prefers a marfhy fituation, where it can conftrubt a neft 
on a little tuft among reeds. The eggs are fpotted with 
red, and four in number. When ftrft hatched, the young 
are covered with a greyifh down ; when ready to quit the 
neft, the colours are not fo bright as they become after¬ 
wards ; the tail is then almoft fquare : in this refpedf it 
refembles the European kite, whofe tail is very little 
forked while young. - 
There is at Senegal a bird of prey which the French 
call ecovjft (kite or puttock;) which, if really a kite, is 
probably of the fame fpecies as the parafite, fince the de- 
feription agrees with it exactly. “ All kind of food is 
agreeable to its devouring maw ; fire arms will not (care 
it away ; it will (hatch drefi'ed or raw meat out of the 
men’s hands.” This agrees with what Vaillant fays of 
tiie parafite ; and, as this fpecies is more common among 
the Great Namaquois and towards the tropic, than near 
the Cape, it is not at all improbable that the fpecies 
(liould exift in the fame latitudes on the other fide of the 
line. 
37. Falco furcatus, the furcated or fwallow-tailed kite 
of America, is laid to be a native of Peru, and appears in 
Carolina only in fummer. In fome refpecls it reiembles 
our kite, and has like it a forked tail. Catelby gives a 
defeription of it under the name of fwallow-tailed hawk, 
and BrifTon terms it the Carolina kite. It is the falco fir. 
catus of Linnaeus, the great Peruvian fwallow of Feuille, 
and the forked-tail Peruvian falcon of Klein. Specific 
character : “ The cere is dull-coloured, the feet yellowi !h, 
the body dufky above and whitifh below, its tail very long 
and forked.” It inhabits Carolina and Peru, lives upon 
infedts and ferpents, and is migratory. It is rather (mai¬ 
ler than our kite, but of the fame length. The hides are 
red, the head and neck fnovvy, the back dufky or black, 
(hining with purple-or green. 
Vaillant’s African variety, called the blac, may be rea- 
3 A dily 
