MI L Y U S MIGRA N S .
Black Kite.
Falco migrans, Bodd. Tab. de PI. Enl., p. 28, no. 472.
Accipiter milvus, Pall. Zoog. Rosso-Asiat., tom. i. p. 356.
Falco ater et F. austriacus, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 262.
.:-4r— fusco-ater, Meyer, Tascbenb. Deutschi. Vög., tom. i. p. 27, et tom. viii. p. 11.
ater et F. fuscus, Brehm, Vög. Deutscbl., p. 53.
Milvus niger, Briss. Ora., tom. i. p. 413.
_——- austriacus et F. ater, Daud. Ora., tom. ii. p. 149.
Hydroictinia atra, Kaup, Class, der Saug. u. Vög., p. 115.
Milvus (Hydroictinia') migrans, Gray, Hand-list of Birds, p. 26.
In 1867 Mr. Hancock made known the circumstance of an individual of 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. T h a t there might
be no mistake in the matter, I submitted the Australian bird to the inspection of J . H. Gurney, Esq., who
immediately said it was identical with the European Minus migrant; and Mr. Hancock’s testimony wdl, I
am sure, be deemed sufficient as to the identity of the British-killed or Northumberland example. Either
as a bird of passage or as a migrant this species is said to inhabit most of the central portions of Europe,
Asia Minor, and almost the whole of Africa; we also find it in the lists of the birds of many other countries.
“ The geographical distribution of the Black K ite ” says Professor Newton, in his edition of Yarrell’s
‘ British Birds,’ is extensive. Though not found in Norway, Sweden, or Finland, in Russia it reaches as
far to the 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 it. It is very
common in the Caucasus; and Messrs. Dickson and Ross obtained it at Eraeroum. In Palestine, according
to Canon Tristram, it arrives about the beginning of 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 ally (M /ra s tegyptias) must have been mistaken for it. The explanation of the difficulty probably lies
in the fact that, while M . agyptius is a resident in Egypt, M . migrant is a bird of passage only and may not
always stop for the convenience of 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. L ay a rd ; and Mr. Edward Newton shot a bird, pronounced by Mr. Gurney
to be of this species, in Madagascar. Mr. Layard also records an example killed at 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 the Atlas, but not occurring to
the south of that range o f mountains. In Europe it is said to be met with occasionally in Portugal and in
Spain, where it breeds, as it also does in several parts o f France. It does not seem to have occurred in
Belgium ; but the Leyden Museum contains a specimen killed in Holland.
With respect to its solitary occurrence in England Mr. Hancock says (in j The Ibis ’ for 1887, p. 253)
“ A fine mature male example of the Black Kite, M h o s migrant, came into my possession in a fresh state
on the 11th of May, 1866. I t was taken in a trap by Mr. F Fulger, the Duke of Northumberland s
gamekeeper, a few days before, in the Red-deer park a t Alnwick. This is, I believe, the first time that this
fine rapacious bird has occurred in Britain. The plumage was in very good condition, except on the lower
part of the body (where it had sustained some injury from the trap), and agrees with that of mature
specimens, in my collection, which I received from the Continent some years ago. It was proved by dissection
to be a male.” H | . .
Throughout the whole o f the countries embraced in its wide range the Black Kite is migratory, proceeding
northward in spring and returning southward in au tum n -th e reb y fully meriting the earliest appellation,
that o f migrant, bestowed upon it by Boddaert. m a n „ i a s .
Mr. Salvin, writing of the bird as seen by him in the Eastern Atlas, says, m ‘The Ibis for 185», p. 184.
“ During the breeding-season it is much more abundant in the Souk-Harras district than M. regain.