124 THE KITE 



THE KITE 

 [F. C. R JOURDAIN] 



The last British haunt of the kite is a vast tract of moorland and 

 rough pasture in Southern Wales, broken here and there by small 

 plantations, in which oak predominates. As there is little game in 

 this country and the population is very sparse, there seems no reason 

 why the stock should not be maintained for many years to come. 

 From about 1893 to 1903 the nests were remorselessly harried by 

 dealers, and occasionally by the local farmers or egg-collectors, and 

 it is probable that not a single young bird was reared during this 

 period. The first attempts at protection were made in 1903, but were 

 unsuccessful, and in 1905 the stock was believed to consist of five 

 birds only. Since that time a slow but steady increase in the 

 numbers has taken place, till at the present time over twenty birds 

 are known to exist. Some trouble has been experienced of late years 

 from the depredations of carrion crows on the eggs, possibly because 

 the presence of the watcher causes the sitting bird to leave the nest 

 more frequently than otherwise would be the case. 



As a rule the kites return to the old breeding-places year after 

 year. They are great travellers, covering an enormous extent of 

 ground, and often flying low with a gliding flight, alternating with 

 occasional flaps of the long wings. They are also remarkably silent 

 birds, and it is rarely that one hears the cry. The only note I have 

 heard from the old birds is a soft "wheeo, wheo" or as Mr. Walpole 

 Bond writes it, "wheiou, whew, whew, whew" It is totally different 

 from the very characteristic' " whinnying " note of the black-kite, and 

 comes much nearer to the mew of the common buzzard, "pee-yeou, 

 pee-yeou" etc., but is softer, thinner, and pitched rather higher. Like 

 most Accipitrine birds, the kite is fond of soaring high in the air over 



