112 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 
the year 1845 or 1846. A large bird was then pointed out to me 
soaring over our heads, far above the noise and tumult of the great 
city, and I was told it was a Kite. Would that I could see the 
sight again! Mr. Rawlence has in his collection one of the last 
Kites recorded as having been killed in Wiltshire. The bird was 
shot many years ago at Kingston Deverill, and a fine specimen it is. 
Mr. Norwood tells me he saw one in 1860, soaring high in the air 
in the Yeovil district; but has seen no sign of one since. About 
the year 1848, however, he took a Kite’s nest in Wadenhoe (?) 
Wood, in Northamptonshire, and then they were far from uncommon 
there. But on writing a few years ago to endeavour to obtain a 
specimen from that place, the only answer returned was the date on 
which the last bird had been killed, and the assurance that there had 
not been one seen there since. Mr. Hart informs me that the last 
specimen of the Kite which he has seen, or heard of, in the neigh- 
bourhood, passed through his hands in the year 1851. This bird 
was killed near Christchurch, and is now in his own collection. It is_ 
a remarkable ruddy and richly-coloured specimen. There is still 
some evidence of their breeding in Wales, and probably in one or two 
places in Scotland, but nowhere else in Great Britain. Their place 
in the New Forest, alas! knows them no more. I would observe 
in passing, that there is no greater proof of the commonness of 
this fine bird in former times throughout the length and breadth of 
the country, and of its unequalled power of poising itself high in 
mid-air, than the fact that each school-boy is yet familiar with its 
name, though he has never seen it, and still vainly attempts to 
emulate its flight with his paper counterpart. 
Buteo Vulgaris, “The common Buzzard.” This species still more 
or less deserves its title, “common ;” in any case as compared with 
its other two congeners, which are indigenous to us. I have a fine 
male bird, killed at Pomeroy, near Bradford, in this county, which 
was then in the possession of Captain Sainsbury, of Bathford, and 
also a female bird, killed in Lincolnshire, by my cousin, Mr. F. F. 
Morres, This latter bird was sent down to me as being a veritable 
Kite, and great was my excitement as I carefully uncovered the 
wrapping to catch the first glimpse of its forked tail—but, alas! 
