FALCON ID.K 



125 



THE KITE. 



MiLVUS icriNUS, Savigny. 



This species — formerly known by the old Anglo-Saxon name of 

 Gled or dead, in allusion to its gliding flight — may, from the colour 

 of its tail and upper plumage, be called the Red Kite, whenever the 

 necessity arises for distinguishing it from its congeners. In the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Kite was so abundant as a 

 scavenger in the streets of London as to attract the attention of 

 foreign visitors, and within the recollection ot living persons it was 

 tolerably common in many of the wooded districts of England, 

 Wales and Scotland ; but for many years it has not been known to 

 breed in the southern counties. The last nest known in Lincolnshire 

 — a former stronghold — was in 1870; and m the few spots still 

 inhabited in \Vales and the Marches, it will soon be exterminated 

 by the collector of British specimens unless the greatest caution 

 is observed. In Scotland it survives in a few localities ; but 

 there the value of its tail-feathers for salmon-lhes adds to the 

 risk which it elsewhere incurs from the gamekeeper. At long 

 intervals single birds or pairs — wanderers from the Continent — are 



