60 THE FARMER'S FOES 



neck. Below dark brown, with the abdomen irregularly 

 mottled with white. The young bird is paler above and 

 below, and has the feathers of the upper surface edged 

 with paler. 



It is a bird with a very wide range, migrating from 

 Southern Europe and Western and Southern Asia. In 

 the Transvaal it is far from uncommon, and several 

 examples, in both young and adult stages of plumage, 

 were obtained on the Modderfontein Dynamite Factory, 

 in the neighbourhood of one of the dams. 



These birds are, as Distant states, very partial to 

 telegraph poles, and may often be seen perched on a 

 fence pole in a somewhat sleepy condition, allowing one 

 to get quite close ere taking flight. When hunting the 

 flight is somewhat sluggish. Small birds, insects and 

 lizards seem to be the staple diet, but an occasional 

 chicken or duckling does not come amiss. 



KITES. 



The Yellow-billed Kite (Milvus cegyptius) is a migrant 

 from North Africa and Arabia. It is a sepia-coloured 

 bird with a grey forehead and throat, and a strongly 

 forked tail. According to Major Stevenson Hamilton, 

 the Game Warden of the Transvaal Game Reserves, its 

 Dutch name of Kuikendief (Chicken-thief) is not merited, 

 as his experience of them is that they do not steal poultry. 

 Be that as it may (we cannot verify or contradict this, 

 having had no personal experience of the bird), it has a 

 bad reputation amongst the populace, whose ignorance 

 is, however, proverbial. The nest is either placed in a 

 tree or in a krantz, and the eggs are white, blotched and 

 streaked with blood-brown. 



