BLACK KITE.
Milvus migrans (BoidaerV
BLACK KITE.
MILVTJS MIGRANS (Boddaert).
Falco mi grans, Boddaert, Table des Planches Enl. p. 28.
no. 472 (1783).
Falco ater, Naum. i. p. 340.
Milvus migrans, Yarr. ed. 4, i. p. 97; Dresser, v. p. 651.
Milan noir, French; Schwarzer Milan, German; Milano
negro, Spanish.
I only use the ordinary English name for this species
for want of a better, as the bird is certainly not
“ black,” and to call it “ migratory” would not distinguish
it from other members of its family. The only
recorded occurrence of this Kite in this country is that
of a specimen taken in a trap at Alnwick, Northumberland,
and brought in a fresh state to the late Mr. John
Hancock on May 11, 1866; this bird, an adult male, is
now in the Museum of Newcastle-on-Tyne. This bird
is a common summer visitor to the plains of Central
Europe, Southern Erance, Spam, and North Africa; in
all these countries I have observed it, but my principal
acquaintance with it was formed in Central and Southern
Spain; in Andalucia it arrives early in March, and from
that period till the end of September may be met with