The figure is that of a male two-thirds of the natural size.
ELANUS AXILLARIS.
J. Gould and H. C. Richter, delt. C. Hullmandel Imp.
ELANUS AXILLARIS.
Black-shouldered Kite.
Falco axillaris, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp., vol. ii. p. 42.—Shaw Gen. Zool., vol. vii. p. 173.—Vieill. 2nde Edit. du Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., tom. iv. p. 453.
Circus axillaris, Vieill. Ency. Méth., Part. III. p. 1212.
Elanus notatus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 141; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.
A more careful comparison of the birds from various parts of the world, which have hitherto been classed under the old specific name of Falco (Elanus) melanopterus, has shown that, instead of their being all identical, each quarter of the globe is inhabited by its own peculiar species; and that although they all bear a general resemblance to each other, they each possess well-defined characters, by which they may be readily distinguished: in their habits, as might be supposed, they are as closely allied as in general appearance.
The species here represented is a summer visitant to the southern portions of the Australian continent, over which it is very widely but thinly dispersed, being found at Swan River on the west coast, at Moreton Bay on the east, and over all the intervening country; I have never seen it in collections from Java, although Sir William Jardine states that it is an inhabitant of that island, neither have I yet seen it from Van Diemen’s Land.
In its disposition it is much less courageous than the other members of the Australian Falconidæ and, as its feeble bill and legs would indicate, lives more on insects and reptiles than on birds or quadrupeds.