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CHAPTER IT. 
THE KITES AND HAWKS. 
Tue Rep Kite (Milvus ictinus)—Marvellous powers of flight—Important part 
played by tail—A Kite’s nest—A stiff climb—Trapping the old bird—Revisit 
nest twenty-four years later—Kites and reptiles—Immense damage wrought 
by reptiles in Spain—Raptorial birds the principal check on their numbers. 
Tue Brack Kite (Milvus migvans)—Simple means of identifying on the wing— 
Spring migration—A colony of Black Kites—Nesting-places—Curious pre- 
dilection for rags and paper. 
Tue Gosnawk (Astuy palumbarius)—Retiring habits—Constancy to same nesting- 
place—A doubtful nest—Failure to identify bird—A stratagem and its result. 
THE SPARROWHAWE (A ccipiter nisus)—Nest in Booted Eagle’s tree—Climbing ivy- 
clad trees. 
THE RED KITE (Milvus actinus). 
T has often occurred to me when 
watching Kites on the wing that 
few birds afford a more instruc- 
tive exhibition of the art or 
mechanism of flying. Whether 
this be due to some subtle com- 
bination of wing-power, relative 
weight or peculiarity of build it 
is hard to say, but it is certain 
that the Kites leave the im- 
pression that they can move 
with greater ease and precision 
than do most other birds. 
The Red Kite owing to 
ceaseless persecution in our Isles, 
is rarely seen and naturally enough is averse from being watched 
