THE GROUSE AND ITS ENEMIES 47 



their liberty, and used to love to accompany their 

 master when he went to the hill, swooping down upon 

 the birds he shot with great rapidity and unerring 

 accuracy of aim. The kite, like the sea eagle, has 

 almost been ' improved away ' from our midst. I for 

 one am heartily sorry that it has become rare. Those 

 that I studied in Spain appeared to live chiefly on 

 offal and small reptiles. But I do not believe the 

 kite is constant to any one diet. In this district the 

 common buzzard feeds upon field voles, because they 

 abound and other prey is scarce. In another district, 

 not twenty miles away from the first, the buzzards 

 live chiefly upon wall lizards. If you open them, you 

 find their stomachs crammed with these reptiles, 

 which you would have fancied were too swift and 

 agile to be captured by so clumsy a round-winged 

 hawk as the common buzzard. It is the same with 

 the kite. In Germany I have seen it trying to annex 

 tiny partridges. In some parts of Scotland, grouse 

 found an inveterate foe in the beautiful, high-circling 

 glede or red kite. The term ' glede,' by the way, is 

 often applied to the buzzard and hen-harrier. But 

 let that pass. The late Mr. 1C. T. Booth was a 

 singularly impartial and truth-loving investigator. 

 He studied the habits of the kite to good purpose 

 in a remote part of Perthshire. The result of 



