KITE. 95 



substances — such as bones, bits of old shoes, and fragments 

 of wasps' nests, but lined with softer materials, in which 

 rags* seem always to have a place, is usually built in the 

 forked branch of a large tree, but sometimes on a ledge of 

 rock. From three to four eggs are laid in April or May. 

 These are of a dirty white, more or less marked with spots 

 and blotches of light reddish-brown or brownish-yellow, 

 under which are often seen patches of pale lilac. They are 

 commonly of a short oval form, and measure from 2*43 to 

 2'05 by 1*82 to 1*64 in. The nest is sometimes vigorously 

 defended by the owners, and a boy has been known to be 

 severely wounded in attempting to take the eggs. 



In the southern counties of England there seems to be no 

 place now wherein the Kite habitually breeds. There were 

 nests in Lincolnshire until the year 1857, but owing in 

 a great "measure to the cutting down of the woods it has 

 probably been driven from that locality. In ' The Zoologist ' 

 for 1871 (p. 2519), Mr. Newman mentions that two nests 

 were found in Radnorshire in 1870, so that it is to be hoped 

 that the species may still linger in Wales until happier 

 times await it. When the first edition of this work was 

 published, the woods near Alconbury Hill were still the 

 breeding-places of the Kite, but it was extirpated there 

 about the year 1844, or soon after. In Scotland, where it 

 was formerly very common, it is now, according to Mr. 

 Robert Gray, but rarely seen even in those localities in the 

 west of that kingdom where, even as late as 1858, it 

 remained to breed, and it does so now probably in three 

 counties only — Aberdeen, Perth and Inverness. It occa- 

 sionally occurs in the Hebrides, but in Ireland, according to 

 Thompson, it has only been known as a very rare visitant, 

 and Mr. Watters omits all mention of it. 



capture from his father's gamekeeper, a very old man. It seems probable, 

 however, that it was rather tlie flight-featbers of the birds which were frozen 

 togethei-, and so hindered the birds from extending their wings, than that their 

 feet were frozen to the boughs, but the story is proof of the abundance of the 

 Kite. 



* Thus justifying the i^ayiug Shakespcar puts into the mouth of Autolycus: 

 " When the Kite builds, look to lesser linen." — Whiter'n Tale, Act iv. Sc. 2. 



