252 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Nov. 1, I86S. 



group of Hawks. Of the allied species, Milvus 

 (egypticus, we read in the Rev. H. B. Tristram's 

 " Great Sahara" : — " Sociable, fearless, and inquisi- 

 tive, it readily approaches man, and hangs over the 

 Arab camp, waiting for offal, and counting the 

 poultry stock. Its nest, the marine-storeshop of 

 the desert, is decorated with whatever scrap of 

 bumouses and coloured rags can be collected ; and 

 to theso are added on every surrouuding branch the 

 cast-off coats of serpents, large scraps of thin bark, 

 and perhaps a bustard's wing." 



sive circles, which were performed by the almost 

 imperceptible motion of his wings, and guided by 

 his forked and elongated tail. He occasionally 

 soared to a great height. When with outstretched 

 wings he performed some of his majestic aerial 

 evolutions, he has again and again delighted and 

 astonished the inhabitants, who believed that he 

 was one of Jove's noble birds that had come from 

 the cold regions of the North to visit this our more 



genial clime " 



Mr. Stevenson cannot give us many instances of 



Eig. 22S. The Kite {Milvus regalis). 



S 



Macgillivray, in his "History of British Birds," 

 gives the following interesting note as supplied to 

 him by Mr. Weir : — " In the neighbourhood of Bath- 

 gate the Fork-tailed Kite very seldom appears,* 

 as during the long period of twelve years I have 

 seen one male only. For three successive seasons 

 he frequented this parish, and was in the almost 

 daily habit of visiting the same localities, making 

 his appearance at bis different haunts about the 

 same hour each day. Amongst partridges and other 

 birds he committed great havoc. His flight was 

 easy and graceful, consisting of curves and cxten- 



* The Kite is known in many localities hy this name, and 

 must not be confounded with the Swallow-tailed Kite 

 (Nuuclerus furcatus). 



the Kite's occurrence in Norfolk, the last one, pro- 

 bably, obtained in that county being a female, trapped 

 at Croxton, near Thetford, in November, 1852. At 

 Cookham, in Berkshire, I have met with people who 

 can remember when the Kite was common on Maid- 

 enhead Thicket, an unenclosed heath of considerable 

 extent ; but no instance of its occurrence in the 

 neighbourhood has been recorded of late years. 



In South Russia it is, according to Demidoff,* 

 "very abundant everywhere, especially in Bessa- 

 rabia. I cannot say," he adds, " with certainty, 

 whether it migrates from our country in the autumn, 

 but I know it has been'killed in the month of March 

 near Odessa. With us it does not feed on fish, and 



* Voy. dans la Russ. Merid., vol. iii. p. 106. 



