202 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



woods, now with beetling, storm- torn crags. It 

 is there that the melancholy mew of the Buzzard 

 challenges the ear incessantly ; there it is that the 

 hoarse bark of the Raven bespeaks the dawn. 

 That is where the Kite still lingers. 



It would be folly to specify exact localities, 

 but one may venture to remark that the bird breeds 

 in three of the south-central counties. Even in 

 its brightest days, it appears never to have been 

 abundant in North Wales (why?), though quite 

 recently a pair nested in Merionethshire. 



In its general habits the Kite is not unlike the 

 Buzzard, but it is a greater wanderer. In com- 

 mon with many of the birds of prey and the Raven, 

 it has favourite hunting-beats, which it patrols 

 much about the same time every day. These 

 ' beats " are principally confined to the edges of 

 the moorland overlooking the valleys, for the 

 Kite, except in really severe weather (when it is 

 often very tame) seldom ventures into the valleys 

 themselves, unless it is with rapid stoop to pounce 

 on some hapless chicken, but, like the Raven, 

 crosses them at a good height. Unlike the 

 Buzzard, however, which, in wet or turbulent 

 weather, often mopes disconsolate on some crag or 

 tree, the Kite even hunts in mist and welting 

 rain : I have watched one so doing in a blinding 

 hurricane. On such occasions it hugs the steep 

 slopes of the hills rather than their summits. In 

 an ordinary way, though, the Kite, when foraging, 



