of rags, wool and other soft materials, while on the surrounding
branches are fantastically hung old pieces of Arab clothing of
various colours. In southern Spain, according to Mr. Howard
Saunders, it exhibits sociable qualities, and a comparatively
small patch of wood will contain ten nests or more, while
when building apart it has always an accompanying colony
of Sparrows. Messrs. Elwes and Buckley state that two pairs,
of Black Kites had made their nests on a high plane-tree in
one of the busiest streets of Pera, and seemed quite insensible
to the noise which was going on all day around them. The
same observers also remark that the nest of this species is
very small. The eggs are two in number, and much resemble
those of the Red Kite already described. Mr. Salvin
and Canon Tristram state that examples procured by them
are more distinctly and deeply marked, but it seems doubtful
whether they ever attain the varied and beautiful tints exhibited
by some northern and especially British specimens
belonging to that species. They measure from 2'17 to 1-94 |
by 1-75 to 1-53 in., and are hatched in April or May.
The geographical distribution of the Black Kite 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, according to Pallas, beyond the Lena. Some of ;
the modern Russian naturalists consider the Milvus melanotis I
of Eastern Siberia, Japan and China to be identical with
M. migrans, and extend the limits of the latter accordingly, >
but the former is regarded by Mr. Gurney and other high
authorities as quite distinct, being larger and sometimes
nearly as rufous as M. ictinus. To the south-east and
south two other species, which have much the same
appearance, represent M. migrans; these are M. affinis,
which ranges from Chusan to Australia, besides occurring
in India, and M. govinda, the common “ Pariah Kite ”
of that country, in which the true Black Kite is not found,
though a specimen from Afghanistan in the East India
Museum is, according to Mr. Gurney, referable to M.
migrans. This last is said, hy Pallas, to winter in Persia,
where Be Filippi also found it. It is very common in the
Caucasus, and Messrs. Dickson and Ross obtained it at Erze-
room. 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
some avowing that they never met with it, and that another of
its near allies, Milvus mgyptius (easily recognized, when adult,
by its pale yellow' beak), must have been mistaken for it. The
explanation of the difficulty probably lies in the fact that while
M. cegyptius is a resident in Egypt, M. migrans is a bird of
passage only, and may not alw'ays stop for the convenience
of other travellers on its wray down or up the Nile valley. Drs.
von Heuglin and A. E. Brehm include it as a bird of Eastern
Kordofan and Abyssinia, and Mr. Blanford found it to be extremely
common both in the highlands and lowlands of the
country last named. Mr. Chapman sent specimens procured
on the Zambesi to Mr. Layard, 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 Damaraland, where it arrives in autumn in large numbers,
and remains throughout the breeding-season. In West 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 of mountains,
its place being taken by M. mgypthis. Returning to
Europe, it is said to be met with occasionally in Portugal,
and in Spain, as before noticed, it breeds. It breeds also in
several parts of France, and Baron de Selys-Longchamps
says, on the authority of M. de Meezemaeker, that it has
been observed at Bergues, which is only a few miles from
the English Channel. I t does not seem to have occurred in
Belgium, but the Leyden Museum contains a specimen killed
in Holland. In Denmark it is found only in the south, and in
northern Germany it appears to be rare; but more to the south
and eastward it breeds not uncommonly in some localities.