34 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



inch to 1 inch in diameter ; the lining was a bit of 

 a saddle-girth, a bit of red worsted binding, a harvest- 

 glove, and sundry pieces of paper and linen." A 

 Spaniard who accompanied me in my bird-collecting 

 rambles in Central Spain, in 1865, assured me that 

 he had once taken a purse containing nine dollars 

 from a Kite's nest, and I first learned the news of the 

 murder of President A. Lincoln from a scrap of a 

 Spanish newspaper found in a nest of this bird near 

 Aranjuez. 



The Kite was a very favourite object of pursuit in 

 the palmy days of falconry, and, from its great powers 

 of wing and habit of mounting high in air, afforded 

 magnificent sport ; the Falcons used appear to have 

 been one or other of the northern species, Falco 

 candicans, F. islandus, or F. gyrfalco, and the Saker, 

 F. sacer. The flight of the Kite is easy and graceful ; 

 in common with some other birds of prey, this bird 

 will soar in circles, sometimes for hours, with hardly a 

 perceptible motion of the wings, but with an occa- 

 sional shift of the forked tail. 



It is a bird of no great courage, and is often driven 

 ofl" by Ravens and even by Magpies. Its cry is a wild 

 plaintive squeal, which, though not very musical, has 

 a certain fitness with the rugged scenery of hill and 

 wood amongst which the bird is so frequently seen. 

 The nest of the Kite is generally built in a high tree 

 (in Spain the stone-pine is a favourite nesting-site), 

 and lined with a very mixed mass of materials, wool, 

 rags, dry grass — in fact almost anything portable that 

 the birds can find in their favourite foraging-grounds, 

 the outsku'ts of towns and villages ; I do not, how- 

 ever, recollect to have ever seen feathers used as a 

 lining for the nest. The eggs are generally three, 



