KITE — GOSH A WK 



79 



and lines its nest with rags and paper gathered in the neighbouring fields or 

 rubbish-heaps. Kites often play in the air above their nests, flying against each 

 other, then soaring for a while together, and raising their heads in a sportive 

 manner. At other times they fly in a quiet and incomparably graceful style, 

 soaring without any perceptible movement of their wings to heights so great that 

 they can hardly be followed by human eyes. They often fly low above the 

 ground, and only when swooping 

 on their prey is there much energy 

 in their movements. The kite is, 

 however, essentially a coward, and 

 greatly afraid of other birds-of- 

 prey. It is a crafty robber, steal- 

 ing goslings, fowls, and ducks; 

 and in quest of these venturing 

 close to villages, and coming back 

 day after day at the same hour, if 

 it has once been successful. Kites 

 will also kill and eat moles, mice, 

 and other small mammals, and in 

 times of need, even insects, worms, 

 and fruit ; while carrion appears 

 to be regarded as their daintiest 

 food. A few solitary kites may 

 remain in central Europe during 

 mild winters, but most of the tribe 

 leave for the south in September 

 and October, generally in flights of 

 from fifty to one hundred, when 

 they cross open plains in large 

 circles, flying slowly and not far 

 above the ground. In the begin- 

 ning of March they return to their 

 nesting-haunts, the area of which 

 extends from southern Sweden to 

 the Mediterranean, and in the east 

 to the Volga and the Urals. In 

 Britain the kite is practically THE KITE - 



exterminated, and it is rare in 



Germany. In France it is also rare, and in Greece is merely a bird of passage ; 

 but in north-west Africa, in the Canaries, and in lower Egypt, it is quite common. 

 On the shores of the Danube it is not seen so frequently as its relative the black kite, 

 but in Bulgaria, Rumania, and the Dobrudscha it appears in considerable numbers. 



Goshawk. 



The typical hawks are birds which catch and kill their own 

 prey, building in the most secluded part of the forest near the trunk 

 of some old lofty tree, or on the lower branches, but always in a dense thicket, 



