BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 7 



11. ACCIPITER NISUS (Linnaeus). Sparrow -Haivk; 

 Everywhere, in spite of traps and guns, common, 

 nesting regularly in all parts of the district. 



12. MILVUS ICTINUS, Savigny. Kite. 



Provincial. Glead, Fueled, 



Thirty years since, this species was not uncommon 

 in Lincolnshire, but can now hardly be considered a 

 resident. As a boy I very well recollect seeing the 

 " fork- tailed " Gleads, as we called them, soaring over 

 the woodlands near Louth ; but I have seen none for 

 the last twenty years. Mr. Alington says that one 

 was observed in a plantation at Swinhope a few years 

 ago, and that he has also now and then seen them 

 passing over at a great height. Mr. Adrian, of Lin- 

 coln, writes (March 27th, 1870) that he has not seen 

 a Kite for four years, and that the Rev. A. Sutton 

 got the last three eggs he took*. Mr. Boulton says 



* In a note (Ootheca Wolleyana, p. 116), Professor Newton 

 states, "Mr. Adrian informed my brother that the Kites in 

 Lincolnshire were becoming scarcer every year. This he attri- 

 buted partly to the destruction of the birds, and partly to that 

 of their favourite haunts, by the felling and " stubbing " of the 

 woods, in two of which one hundred acres had been cut down 

 since the beginning of the year, and this is the best locality. 

 He said he found this nest on the 6th of May (1857), then un- 

 finished ; on the 16th he called to see if there were any eggs in 

 it, and found it had been completed by the addition of a few 

 pieces of old rags, but there were no eggs. On making inquiry 

 of some boys living in a cottage by the woodside, he discovered 



