THE KITE. 43 



island of Arran, but has for many years been banished from these 

 districts. At present it is doubtful if it breeds in more than three 

 counties in Scotland, namely, Inverness, Perth, and Aberdeen. 

 I have recently seen unfledged young from a secluded district in 

 the north of Perthshire, but it is very doubtful if the birds will 

 maintain their footing there. 



In almost every Scottish collection of any consequence, I find 

 more than one specimen of the Kite, a fact which shows the 

 species to have been widely spread. Some of the specimens I 

 have examined are extremely handsome, especially those procured 

 in the counties of Argyle and Inverness, where their prey for the 

 most part must have been lawfully obtained, without the indul- 

 gence of plundering raids among poultry. 



I have been unable to trace its presence in any part of the 

 Outer Hebrides, but I find that the late Dr Macgillivray, in a 

 communication to the Edinburgh Journal of Natural and Geo- 

 graphical Science, entitled, " An Account of the Outer Hebrides," 

 and published in 1830, remarks that the Kite is very rare in these 

 islands. Mr Elwes informs me, that in Islay it is still seen, but 

 rarely, flying over the island. 



OBS. It may not be out of place here to remark, that in the be- 

 ginning of the present century, when Don's Fauna of Forfarshire 

 was published, the Black Kite (Falco ater) is recorded by that 

 writer as occurring " on heaths and low hills" in his district. At 

 that time the common Kite was a well-known and even a plenti- 

 ful species in the county of Forfar, a district of Scotland which, 

 from its great variety of scenery woods, glens, and mountain 

 ranges can still boast of many rare birds, and I have little doubt 

 that Bon, from his general intelligence and accuracy, was right in 

 his recognition of a second species. In corroboration of what both 

 that writer and Sir Eobert Sibbald (who also mentions the black 

 gled (Milvus niger)* as a Scottish species) have left on record, I may 

 observe that Mr John Hancock, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, in a letter 

 to the "Ibis" dated 14th March, 1867, thus alludes to the occur- 

 rence of the species in Northumberland, at no great distance from 

 the Scottish borders : " A fine male example of the black kite 

 (Milvus migrant, Bodd. 1783) (Falco ater, Gmel. 1788) came into 

 my possession in a fresh state on the llth May, 1866. It was 



* See his list of Scottish Birds in " Scotia Illustrata," p. 15. 



