30 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
missed them both. The poor birds with loud cries of 
alarm scudded along for a short distance, and then 
dropped into the long heath ; while the kite, urged on- 
wards by the impetus of his swoop, rose gracefully in the 
air, and wheeling over my head, mounted upwards in 
spiral circles, gradually increasing in circumference until 
he became a mere speck in the blue sky, and was lost to 
my gaze. I could not help admiring the ease with which 
this was done, for after he commenced his gyrations I 
could not detect a single stroke of his wings; he soared 
aloft as if propelled by some invisible power, his forked 
tail, broadly outspread, alone moved, as rudder-like, it 
directed his graceful course. 
Another, a female, was shot near Edwinstowe while 
flying from the old trees of Birkland to the grounds 
surrounding the house of the late Dowager Countess of 
Scarborough. At one time the kite was by no means 
uncominon, but, from its habit of taking its prey on 
the ground, it is easily trapped, and I have little doubt 
that this is one of the chief causes of its diminished 
numbers. 
To me there is something very wild in the shrill 
squeal of the kite, and when heard in the moorland dis- 
tricts, where now it is chiefly to be encountered, it has a 
peculiarly drear and mournful sound. 
I have met with all the buzzards more or less fre- 
quently, especially in the wilder and less wooded parts 
of the district ; but I have not found any of them breed- 
ing with us. Those whose presence I have recorded 
must have migrated from other quarters, and they, alas! 
are no sooner seen than they are picked off by the 
keepers, leaving their places to be supplied by fresh 
victims. 
