KITE — COMMON BUZZARD. 31 



nithological Bamhles in Sussex, p. 135). Mr. James Dalton in- 

 formed the Rev. F. O. ISIorris that a Kite was captured 

 in Blenheim Park [Hist. Brit. Birds, I. p. 6^), and this was 

 probably the same individual stated by the Hon, T. L. Powys 

 (now Lord Lilford), in a note dated nth February, 1852, to 

 be then alive in his possession [Zoologist, p. 3388). Since that 

 date, as far as I know, the Kite has never been procured in 

 Oxfordshire. Fifty years at the most was sufficient to abso- 

 lutely exterminate a bird common, and even abundant, at 

 the commencement of that period. 



Although not occurring- actually in the county, a Kite, now 

 in the Rev. Murray A. Mathew^s collection, which was shot 

 and stuffed by a barber at Abing-don just over the river in 

 Berkshire, about 1855, may be mentioned as being probably one 

 of the last of the race of residents procured in that neighbour- 

 hood. And as late as 1880 the head keeper at Radley told the 

 Rev. H. A. Macpherson that five years previously he shot a 

 beautiful example of the Kite, describing its tail and expanse 

 of wing. This he sold to a member of Brasenose College 

 for half-a-sovereign. Radley is about a mile over the Berk- 

 shire borders, near Nuneham Courtenay. 



THE COMMON BUZZARD. ^ 



Buteo rtdgan's. 



The Buzzard is an occasional visitor, formerly doubtless 

 breeding in the woods, as it was reported to do by Mr. Forrest, 

 an Oxford bird- stuff er, to the Messrs. Matthews, who, however, 

 in their account merely say that it was occasionally killed in 

 the neighbourhood. Thirty years ago, as Mr. E. W. Harcourt 

 kindly informs me, it was a regular visitor to Nuneham Park 

 in the autumn. Mr. G. Arnatt has often seen Buzzards in 

 Tar Wood, Stanton Harcourt, as late as forty years ago, and 

 believed that they bred there at that time. Lord Lilford has 

 recorded an example trapped in Blenheim Park in the winter 



