MAY 121 



of Wales. Their eggs used to be eagerly sought by 

 collectors; but effectual measures having been taken to 

 prevent that in future, there is good prospect of our 

 witnessing once more that which not one person in ten 

 thousand has ever seen in these islands the splendid 

 wingmanship of this beautiful bird of prey. 



It was a common enough sight once. The Bohemian 

 writer Schaschek, who visited London in 1461, declares 

 that nowhere had he seen so many kites as about London 

 Bridge. A hundred years later another traveller, Belon, 

 describes the kites as almost as numerous in London as 

 in Cairo, and says they fed upon the garbage in the 

 streets. Kites, indeed, were regarded as useful scavengers 

 in times when sanitary science had no disciples. Not a 

 very kingly function to be discharged by a bird dis- 

 tinguished as regalis-, but thereby hangs another tale. 

 That title was won by the kite on account of its extra- 

 ordinary powers of flight, which made it the noblest 

 quarry of the falconer. None but the very best falcons 

 could strike at the kite, owing to the great height to 

 which that bird rises when pursued ; and as the best 

 falcons were wont to be reserved for the king's mews, the 

 kite became known in France as milan royal, which, in 

 Latin version, has become Milvus regoMs of modern 

 ornithologists. 



Humble as he is in regular vocation, and disreputable 

 in morals, being a notorious robber of poultry, the kite is 

 of right royal aspect, measuring more than two feet from 

 the tip of his sharply-hooked beak to the forked ends of 

 his tail. His countenance bears the expression of pitiless 

 ire and ceaseless vigilance which is common to all birds 

 that live by rapine. The head is light gray, almost white, 



