_Gypoictinia melanosternon_ of Australia has a black head and lower surface, chestnut occiput, nape, and thighs, and brownish- or rufous-black upper parts, the wings and rounded tail being marked with greyish white. Like a Kite in manners, it eats snakes and lizards, and is said to destroy Bustard's and Emeu's eggs.[139] _Elanoïdes furcatus_, the lovely Swallow-tailed Kite, caught once in England, and ranging from the Middle United States to Brazil, is black, with purple and green reflexions, white head, neck, rump, inner secondaries and under parts, bluish bill and feet. With splendid powers of wing, it may be seen gliding rapidly through the air, skilfully quartering the ground, or circling aloft with its long forked tail outspread, to perform doublings and evolutions of every description. It catches bees or other insects in one claw and eats them as it flies, or snatches up a lizard, snake, or frog, to be devoured at leisure, small birds and grubs varying the diet. Flocks are often seen, which {171}hang round a wounded individual like Terns. In the nest and eggs this species and the last resemble their kin, though using no rubbish in building. _Nauclerus riocouri_, of inter-tropical Africa, a miniature _Elanoïdes_, is grey, with white face and lower surface. _Gampsonyx swainsoni_, of Trinidad, Guiana, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil, is grey, with yellow face, white collar, under parts and tips to the secondaries; a black patch relieving each side of the breast and one of red the upper back. The tail is rounded in this and the succeeding genus. _Elanus caeruleus_, the Black-winged Kite, straying to South-West Europe, but properly ranging from the South-East to India, Ceylon, and all Africa, is ashy-grey above with a black patch on the wing-coverts; the face, lateral rectrices, and all the lower plumage being white, and the irides red. A sub-species, _E. hypoleucus_, occupies Borneo, Java, the Philippines, and Celebes. _E. scriptus_ of Australia, _E. axillaris_, extending thence to Java, and the hardly separable _E. leucurus_ of tropical and sub-tropical America, are marked with black on the under wing-coverts, while the first has black axillaries also. These buoyant birds are fond of perching, but soar with ease, quartering the plains like Harriers, or hovering with uplifted wings to dart down upon their prey of insects, snakes, small mammals, and more rarely birds. The cry is mournful; the small nest, of sticks, grass, and moss, is placed in trees; the three, four, or even eight white eggs being heavily blotched with red. _Ictinia mississippiensis_, the Mississippi Kite, found from the Southern United States to Guatemala, and represented from Mexico to Paraguay by the black-winged _I. plumbea_, is lead-coloured, with black notched tail and rufous inner webs to the primaries; its manners correspond to those of _Elanoïdes_, but the eggs are white.