94 FALCONID.E. 



without missing one, but when the King was taken out to 

 see their prowess at Royston, the quarry mounted to such 

 a height, " as all the field lost sight of 'Kite and Hawke and 

 all, and neither Kite nor Hawke Avere either seen or heard of 

 to this present." About a hundred years ago, the then 

 Lord Orford i)ursued the same sport at Alconbury Hill in 

 Huntingdonshire, and later still near Eriswell in Suffolk. 



In proof of the docility of this species, Thompson relates 

 that the Kite itself, on the other hand, has been reclaimed 

 and trained to take a quarry, though of a humble kind. 

 Mr. R. Langtry procured from the nest a pair which became 

 tame and familiar, and notwithstanding that they were 

 allowed their liberty every morning, when they soared to a 

 great height, they always returned to the lure or fist on 

 being called, and while on the wing, rats let out of a cage- 

 trap were expertly caught by them. 



This bird has now become exceedingly rare in England ; 

 extensive forests or well-wooded districts afforded it the only 

 chance of escape from the war of extermination carried 

 on by those who wished to preserve their poultry or game. 

 Formerly it abounded throughout the country and even in 

 London, where it seems there was a regulation for its pro- 

 tection, so as to have been an object of astonishment to 

 foreigners. Thus the Bohemian Schaschek who visited 

 England about 1461, after mentioning London Bridge in 

 his journal,* remarks that he had nowhere seen so great a 

 number of Kites as there, and the statement is confirmed 

 by Belon, who says that they were scarcely more numerous 

 in Cairo than in London, where they remained all the year, 

 feeding on the garbage of the streets and even of the 

 Thames itself, f 



The nest, formed of sticks mixed with a variety of other 



* Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, vii. p. 40 (1844). 



t Knapp, in the 'Journal of a Naturalist' (p. 230), mentions the singular 

 capture of some Kites which were roosting on tall trees in winter: — "a fog 

 came on during the night, which froze early in the morning, and fastened the 

 feet of the poor kites so firmly to the boughs that some a<lventurous youths 

 l)rouglit down, I think, fifteen of them so secured." Mr. Fuller-Maitland has 

 kindly informed tlie Editor that when a boy he heard of the same or a similar 



