136 DICTIONARY OF NAMES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



KING HARRY BLACKCAP: The BLACKCAP. (Norfolk.) 



KINGLET: The GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. 



Kio. A Cornish name for the COMMON SNIPE. 



KIP: The COMMON TERN. (Provincial.) 



KIPP. A local name for the Terns about Dungeness and 

 Lydd. 



KIRR-MEW. A local name for the COMMON TERN. Kirr is 

 from the cry, and Mew is Old Eng. for Gull. 



KISHIEFAIK: The KITTIWAKE. (Orkneys.) From its cry. 



KISTREL: The KESTREL. (Turner.) 



KIT: The FIELDFARE. (Cheshire.) 



KITE [No. 250]. The name, of great antiquity, is from the 

 A.Sax. cyta. It occurs in Turner (1544) as " kyte," in Merrett 

 (1667) as "Fork-tailed Kite," and in Willughby (1678) as 

 " Kite." This well-known species is now of rare occurrence 

 in most parts of our islands and has long ceased to breed 

 except perhaps in a few localities in Wales. Turner says that 

 in his day it was " abundant and remarkably rapacious. 

 This kind is wont to snatch food out of children's hands 

 in our cities and towns." Its former abundance is indeed 

 perhaps best exemplified by the commonness of kite-flying 

 among boys. The employment by this bird of rags and 

 anything else it can possibly steal as material for its nest is 

 by no means a modern trait in its character, and formerly, 

 when the bird was common in England, this predilection 

 appears to have been well-known, as may be gathered from 

 the instance in the speech of Autolycus in the " Winter's 

 Tale " (act iv, so. 2) : 



When the kite builds, look to the lesser linen. 

 An old popular saying, now perhaps almost beyond verifi- 

 cation in England, at any rate is that if Kites fly high, 

 fine weather is at hand. The term Royal Kite originated 

 in the fact that only the King's falcons could take it, its 



Eowers of flight being beyond those of the lesser kinds of 

 ilcons. 



KITE : Used erroneously for the MARSH-HARRIER and the 

 COMMON BUZZARD (Ireland) ; the KESTREL (Shrop- 

 shire). 



KITTI-AKE : The KITTIWAKE GULL. (Flamborough.) 



KITTIE or KITTY : The KITTIWAKE GULL. (East Anglia, 

 Yorkshire, Banffshire.) 



KITTIE NEEDIE : The COMMON SANDPIPER. (Kirkcud- 

 bright.) 



