Crown of the head, face, chin, chest and centre of the abdomen deep black, passing into chestnut-red on the flanks, thighs and under tail-coverts; back of the head chestnut-red, becoming black in the centre of each feather; shoulders whitish buff; all the upper surface deep brownish black, margined with chestnut-red; primaries white at the base, deep black for the remainder of their length; cere and base of the bill purplish flesh-colour, passing into black at the tip; irides wood-brown; feet white tinged with lilac.
The Plate represents a male about two-thirds of the natural size.
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter, del^t._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._ ]
_Milvus affinis_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 140; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part III.
_E-le-nid-jul_, Aborigines of Port Essington.
With the single exception of Van Diemen’s Land, this Kite is universally dispersed over all the Australian Colonies, and is equally as common at Port Essington, on the north coast, as it is on the southern portions of the country.
Its confident and intrepid disposition renders it familiar to every one, and not unfrequently costs it its life, as it fearlessly enters the farm-yard of the settler, and if unopposed, impudently deals out destruction to the young poultry, pigeons, &c. tenanting it. It is also a constant attendant at the camps of the Aborigines and the hunting parties of the settlers, perching on the small trees immediately surrounding them, and patiently waiting for the refuse or offal. The temerity of one individual was such, that it even disputed my right to a Bronze-winged Pigeon that had fallen before my gun, for which act, I am now almost ashamed to say, it paid the penalty of its life; on reflection I asked myself why should advantage have been taken of the confident disposition implanted in the bird by its Maker, particularly too when it was in a part of the country where no white man had taken up his abode and assumed a sovereign right over all that surrounds him.
The flight of this bird, which is closely allied in character to that of the _Milvus ater_ of Europe, is much less protracted and soaring than that of the typical Kites; the bird is also much more arboreal in its habits, skulking about the forest after the manner of the true Buzzards. Great numbers have been observed hovering over the smoke of the extensive fires so common in Australia, closely watching for Lizards and any of the smaller mammalia that may have fallen victims to the flames, or have been driven by the heat from their lurking places.