H E W S M I6R A F S , J J o ä d .
Walter,Jmp
JH b lf IcW Ih rt, äcl/elliü u .
MILVUS MIGRANS .
Black Kite.
Falco migrans, Bodd. Tab. de PI. Enl., p. 28, no. 472.
Accipiter,milvus, Pall. Zoog. Rösso-Asiat,, tom. i. p. 356.
Falco ater et F. austriacus, Gmel. edit. lin n . Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 262.
-fusco-ater, Meyer, Taschenb. Deutschi. Yög., tom. L p. 27, et tom. viii. p. 11.
ater et F. fuscus, Brehm, Vög. Deutsch!., p- 53.
Mihus niger, Briss. Orn., tom. i. p. 413.
austriacus et F. ater, Dand. Orn., tom. ii. p. 149.
Hych-oictmia air«, Kaup, Class, der Säug. u. Vög., p. 115.
Mihus (H g d n k tm ia ) migraru, Gray, Hahd-list of Birds, p. 26.
In 1#«.' Mr. Hancock made known the circumstance o f an individual o f this species having been killed in
Northumberland; and almost simultaneously a specimen was transmitted to me from Northern Australia,—
facts which will give the reader an idea o f how widely this species ranges over the globe. That there might
be no mistake in the matter, I submitted the Australian bird to the inspection o f J . H. Gurney, Esq., who
immediately said it was identical with the European Minus migrant-, and Mr. Hancock’s testimony will, I
am sure, be deemed sufficient as to the identity of the British-killed or Northumberland example. Either
as a bird o f passage or as a migrant this species js said to inhabit most of the central portions of Europe,
Asia Minor, and almost the whole o f Africa ; we also find it in the lists of the birds o f many other countries.
“ The geographical distribution of the Black K ite ’’ says Professor Newton, in his edition of YarreU’s
< g r-„; Birds,’ is extensive. Though not found in Norway, Sweden, or Finland, in Russia it reaches as
far to tin* north as Archangel, and thence across Siberia, becoming rarer to the eastward, and hardly observed
beyond the Lena. I t is said by Pallas to winter in Persia, where De Philippi also found i t.’ It is very
common in the Caucasus ; and Messrs. Dickson and Ross obtained it a t Erzeroum. In Palestine, according
to Canon Tristram, it arrives about the beginning o f March in immense numbers, and scatters itself over
the whole country. There is much discrepancy in the accounts of recent travellers as to its occurrence
in Egypt, some stating that it is very abundant there, and others that they never met with it, and that a
near any t Minus * * » « « • ) must have been mistaken for it. The explanation of the difficulty probably lies
in the feet that, while M x g y p l'm is a resident in Egypt, M . migrons is a bird o f passage only and may not
always stop for the convenience o f other travellers on its way down or up the Nile valley. Drs Von Heughn,
and E . A. Brehm include it as a bird o f Eastern Kordofan and Abyssinia and Mr. Blanford ; found it to be
extremely common both in the highlands and lowlands o f the latter country. Mr. Chapman sent specimens
procured on the Zambesi to Mr. Layard ; and Mr. Edward Newton shot a bird, pronounced by Mr. Gurney
to be o f this species, in Madagascar. Mr. Layard also records an example killed a t Colesberg, in the Cape
Colony; and Andersson met with it in Damara Land, where it arrives in autumn in large numbers, and
remains throughout the breeding-season. In Western, Africa it has been obtained at Bissao and on the
Niger. I t occurs in Morocco, and is very common in Algeria, breeding in tbe Adas, but not occurring to
the south o f that range o f mountains. In Europe it is said to be met with occasionally in Portugal and in
Spain, where it b red » , as it also does in several parts o f France. It does not seem to have occurred in
Beliriut» • but the ; yrien Museum contains a specimen killed in Holland.”
. ., ; tW .solitary occurrence in England Mr. Hancock says (in ‘ The Ibis for 1867» p. 253) :
• \ tiK mature male example of the Black Kite, Mihus migrant, came into my possession in a fresh state
on the I lit, of May 1806 It was taken in a trap by Mr. F Fulger, the Duke o f Northumberland’s
” before, in the Red-dcer park at Alnwick. This is, I believe, the first time that this
fine rapacious lord bas occurred in Britain. The plumage was in very good condition, except on the lower
part of tbe body (where it had sustained some injury from the trap), and agrees with that o f mature
specimen, in my collection, which I received from the Continent some years ago. It was proved by dissection
to be a m fe ."
Throughout the whole o f the countries embraced in its wide rangé the Black Kite is migratory, prow-
northward u» spring a»d returning southward in autumn—thereby fully meriting the earliest appeM
that of migrât*», bestowed upon it by Boddaert.
Mr. Salvia, writing of the bird as seen by him in the Eastern Atlas, says, in ‘The Ibis’ for 1859, p. 184:—
“ Durinir the breedinjr-aeason it is much more abundant in the Souk-Harras district than . /. rega is,