74 BRITISH BIRDS. 



MILVUS REGALIS. 

 COMMON KITE. 



(PLATE 5.) 



Accipiter milvus regalis, Briss. Orn. i. p. 414, pi. 33 (1760). 



Falco milvus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 126 (1766). 



Milvus castaneus, Daud. Traite, ii. p. 148 (1800). 



Milvus ictinus*, Sav. Syst. Ois. tfEgypte, p. 28 (1810). 



Milvus regalis (Briss.), Vidll. Faun. Franq. p. 14 (1821). 



Accipiter regalis (Briss.), Pall. Zooyr. Rosso- As. i. p. 358 (1826); et auctorum 

 plurimoriun (Macyillivray), (Gray), (Bonaparte), (Schkgef), (Strickland), 

 (Sundevall), (Degland et Gerbe), (Gould), (Heuglin*), (Salvadori), (Gray), &c. 



Milvus vulgaris, Flem. Brit. An. p. 51 (1828). 



A hundred years ago the Kite was one of the commonest birds of prey 

 to be seen in Great Britain, but now it has become almost as rare as the 

 Osprey or the Goshawk. All the old writers who have treated of the natural 

 history of our islands have made reference to the wide distribution 

 and abundance of the Kite. Even in busy London laws were once in 

 existence for its protection, the birds being so numerous there as to attract 

 the attention of foreigners, just as in our day the Doves, the Vultures, 

 and the Storks in Eastern cities arrest our own. 



At the present day the Kite must be looked upon only as an accidental 

 visitor to England. In the southern counties there is no place now where 

 it regularly breeds. There were nests in the large woods of Lincolnshire 

 up to 1857; but since so much timber has been felled, the Kites have 

 deserted that locality. A few pairs still remain in the secluded districts of 

 Wales. When the first edition of YarrelFs ( British Birds ' was published, 

 the Kite still bred at Alconbury Hill, in Huntingdonshire, and the bird was 

 said to become more numerous in the northern counties, where, however, 

 no trace of it can now be found. Waterton spoke of seeing the Kite at 

 his seat in Yorkshire ; and, upon the authority of Dr. Heysham, it used to 

 breed in the woods of the Lake district. At the present day it is seen but 

 rarely in England. Some six years ago a specimen was recorded, said to be 

 for the first time, in the Isle of Wight (Zool. 1876, p. 4760) ; and Mr. Gurney 

 writes that he sometimes sees this bird in Norfolk, passing southwards in 

 the autumn, in company with Buzzards. In Scotland it was formerly a 

 very common bird, but is now rarely seen, and only breeds in one or 



* Although the Kite has been almost universally known as M. regalis, and amono- con- 

 tinental ornithologists is known by no other name, Messrs. Newton, Sharpe, and Dresser 

 have all three allowed themselves to be blinded by the rules of the British Association, 

 and have unearthed a new name for this bird, which has been pretty generally adopted, 

 by modern English writers on birds. 



