84. BRITISH BIRDS. 
At last, however, I found one containing two fresh eggs. It was built on 
a horizontal branch near the summit of a lofty pine tree, and was con- 
structed of sticks, lined with fragments of paper of all sorts and colours, 
and with an equally mixed assortment of dry dung (of horse, cattle, &c.). 
During the day the Crown Prince and some of his party found two more 
nests containing eggs very slightly incubated. The Black Kite breeds 
later than the Common Kite; for I found a nest of the latter containing 
three young, and Graf Wilszek took a clutch of three hard-set eggs. In 
all the nests that I visited there was a quantity of paper and dung. These 
pine-forests are frequently broken by broad strips of sun-baked mud, which 
during the winter are, no doubt, a series of ‘lagunas.2. The Black Kites 
congregated in numbers on these open places, where they crouch very much 
after the manner of Pratincoles. I crept under cover of some scrub to within 
a hundred and fifty yards of a party of twenty-two, and watched their pro- 
ceedings through my binocular. Some were crouching on the ground, 
whilst others were walking about, apparently feedmg. When they de- 
tected my presence they rose with a shrill tremulous cry. I came upon 
many such parties of them, and on each occasion tried to make out what 
they were feeding upon. The ground was as hard as iron, and the scanty 
vegetation on it brown and dead; so I conclude that they must have been 
catching some insects, judging from the frequency with which they pecked 
at the ground.” 
The eggs of the Black Kite vary from two to five in number, 
but in Pomerania two is the regular clutch. Goebel states that the 
number of eggs is usually three, occasionally only two. He has 
also found four, and on one occasion as many as five. The eggs of the 
Black Kite closely resemble those of the Common Kite, but are perhaps, 
on an average, more richly marked. The ground-colour is either dull white 
or the faintest of pale blue, more or less boldly spotted and blotched with 
browns of different shades. Some specimens are far more richly marked 
than others. In some eggs the markings are deep rich reddish brown, dis- 
tributed in large patches, with scratchings and specks of lighter brown 
between. Others are finely powdered over the entire surface with 
freckles of colour, here and there becoming confluent, especially on the 
larger end. A very handsome variety has the smaller end clouded with 
pale brown, here and there marked with rich brown, and the rest of the 
egg spotted with pale brown and faint shell-markings of lilac. Another 
and more rare variety is streaked on the small half with pale brown, similar 
to a Bunting’s egg, the streaks becoming confluent at the small end of 
the egg. Many Black Kites’ eggs are almost undistinguishable from 
Common Buzzard’s, and, except that on an average they are slightly 
smaller, scarcely differ from Common Kite’s. They possess little or no 
