54 OUR BARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



bushes in hedgerows, hirch and other young and 

 slender trees growing thickly together, and is 

 generally at no great height from the ground. 

 Although not a close sitter as a rule, I have 

 occasionally had to scare it off its nest by shaking 

 the tree in which it was situated. The structure 

 is composed of slender twigs, with an inner lining 

 of fine roots. Sometimes mud and grass are used 

 in its construction. It is deep and cup-shaped, as 

 it often needs to be for the safety of its contents 

 during the prevalence of strong winds. 



The eggs number from five to seven, of a 

 dusky green ground colour, tinged with light blue, 

 and thickly covered with light olive-brown spots, 

 which are nearly lost in our illustration owing to 

 their smallness and the photographic method of 

 reproduction. 



KITE. 



IT is a sorry thing when a bird which was once 

 sufficiently numerous in the streets of London to 

 form one of its many wonders to foreign visitors, 

 should have become so rare in even the remotest 

 parts of the British Islands, that it pays a dealer 

 to send men long distances in order to secure its 

 eggs ; and that one pair of birds should in conse- 

 quence have tried to propagate their species for 

 ten long weary years in vain. Such is the per- 

 sistent robbery of the poor Kite, that I have heard 

 a naturalist say he would be glad to hear of the 

 death of the last pair in this country, in order that 

 the species might be relieved from the never-ceasing 

 persecution of the collector. 



Mr. Cambridge Phillips tells me that one or 



