274 MILVUS llEGALIS. 



tion of heart, I crept upon my hands and knees until I was 

 within sixty yards of the place where he stood. Up he started 

 so soon as I raised my head above the wall. I levelled my 

 gun, and brought him to the ground. In securing this my 

 long-wished-for prize, I had some difficulty, as when I ap- 

 proached him, he struck at me with his bill and talons most 

 fiercely and resolutely. I assure you (for you, Sir, experi- 

 mentally know the enthusiasm with which one is excited when 

 in pursuit of a fine specimen of the feathered tribe) that I could 

 not have been elated with gi-eater self complacency, even though 

 I had, at the late far-famed tournament, encountered and defeat- 

 ed the noble Earl of Eglinton, or the redoubtable Marquis of 

 Waterford, aye, and received the well-earned pahn of victory, 

 and the smiles of ajaprobation from the ' bewitching and match- 

 less Queen of Beauty.' This Kite is the one which belongs 

 to Mr Henderson, and which you have at present." It is the 

 specimen from which I have taken the description of the male. 

 I have never seen a Kite's nest, but have examined two eggs 

 taken from one in Argyllshire, of which one was bluish-white, 

 the other yellowish -white, clouded with reddish-brown ; their 

 form broadly elliptical, the greatest diameter two inches and a 

 quarter, the breadth an inch and eight twelfths. Mr Yarrell, 

 in his well-arranged and beautifully illustrated History of 

 British Birds, says, " The nest, formed of sticks, and lined 

 with various soft materials, is usually placed in the forked 

 branch of a tree in a thick wood. Two, and sometimes three 

 eggs, of a short oval form, measuring two inches and two lines 

 in length by one inch nine lines in breadth, of a soiled white 

 colour, marked with a few reddish-brown spots over the larger 

 end, are laid early in the season." Two eggs from France 

 which I have seen were of this kind, being white, with a few 

 dots of brown, and almost precisely of the same dimensions. 

 In defending its nest the Kite shews no lack of courage, for it 

 has been known to attack the aggressor, and in all cases threat- 

 ens him by its loud screams and violent plunges. 



Young. — The young, which at first are covered with white 

 down, are when fledged of a darker and duller colour than the 



