60 HILLSIDE, ROCK, AND DALE 



a bird, which was once so common, should be allowed 

 to be gradually exterminated. When the last two 

 or three pairs, which still each year try to breed, dis- 

 appear, the last will be seen of our British kites. 

 Even now they might practically be numbered 

 amongst our lost British birds. 



Long before we reached the kite's breeding haunt 

 the sloping hillside wood could be seen. As we 

 came over a hill, one out of many we had trudged 

 over, we looked on one of the finest views that even 

 a county of mountains and rivers could boast of. 

 There were two great hills on before, with a rushing, 

 tumbling stream between, winding in many devious 

 courses over moss-covered rocks and grey boulders 

 such a stream that the dipper delights to haunt. At 

 length we reached the wood on the steep hillside. 

 It was rather difficult to walk up the crumbling, loose 

 surface, but eventually we reached the middle, and 

 there, nearly at the top of a low oak tree, was the 

 kite's nest. It was with no small amount of admira- 

 tion that I looked on this, one of the rarest if not 

 the rarest nests of our British birds. I seemed to 

 be on enchanted ground, there was something so 

 novel and attractive in the surroundings. It was 

 not the tree one would have pictured as containing 

 the nest, it seemed such an insignificant little oak ; 

 there were others near much taller and larger alto- 

 gether, yet here in an ordinary tree, easy to climb, 



