152 EAGLES AND EAGLE-LIKE BIRDS. 



Eggs. Up to 3, dull white, patched with rusty- 

 brown, mostly at the larger end; 2'25xl -7 5 inches 

 (plate 127). 



Nest. Of sticks, with rags, paper, and other 

 rubbish, placed high against the trunk of a tree. 



Distribution. In England in the Midlands and 

 the Marches ; Wales ; and Scotland. 



Once common and protected as a scavenger in the 

 London streets, the Kite served man in his filth to be 

 slaughtered by him in his folly. All but exterminated 

 in the British Isles, the species is now represented by 

 a few breeding pairs in the Midlands of England, the 

 Marches, Wales, and Scotland. It makes its nest, a 

 mass of sticks and rubbish, in a tree in the manner 

 of the Common Buzzard, and it is principally in the 

 nesting season that its long-drawn, mewing cry is 

 to be heard. Although a majestic soarer, the Kite 

 trusts to its cunning rather than to its powers of 

 pursuit for the capture of its prey. The latter con- 

 sists for the most part of small mammals, reptiles, and 

 birds, and any heavier quarry the Kite may come 

 by it owes probably to indirect methods. It is an 

 habitual devourer of carrion. The long, deeply forked 

 tail, visible at any height, at once stamps its possessor 

 as a Kite, there being no other British bird of the 

 Kite's size with such a tail. 



OSPREY. Plate 70. 2 feet. Upper parts deep 

 brown, mixed with white on the head and neck ; a 

 blackish streak running from behind the eye down 

 the neck ; under parts white, with a brown band 



