84 Falconidce. 



There is also a wood lying between the villages of Erchfont 

 and Potterne still known as ' Kite- wood,' which doubtless was 

 originally so called because it contained a tree on which the 

 Kites annually made their nest, for the bird was common enough 

 sixty years ago, and most old people can recollect something of 

 the ' forky tailed ' Kite or Glead. Personally I have never been 

 so fortunate as to see one wild in England, though I have more 

 than once met with it in Germany ; and possess a magnificent 

 specimen which I brought from Hospenthal, on the St. Gothard 

 Pass, in Switzerland, as long ago as 1839. It was very easy to 

 be distinguished from all others of the Falconidse, by its long and 

 much-forked tail, and by its graceful gliding motion, whence its 

 provincial name ' Glead ' ; and it delighted to soar in circles, and 

 to sail on almost motionless wing. Though it would occasionally 

 seize a chicken or a duckling (as the henwife knew to her cost) 

 rats, mice, leverets and other small quadrupeds composed its 

 principal prey, and when it did take a bird it was generally one 

 of the gallinaceous order, for the mode of seizing its victim, by 

 pouncing upon it on the ground, differed from that of most of 

 the preceding species. But though so elegant and graceful, the 

 Kite was not remarkable for courage ; a hen has been often 

 known to beat off" the intruder from her chickens, and, indeed, it 

 was selected as the quarry at which to fly large falcons in olden 

 times, and from the sport it thus often afforded to royalty, are 

 derived the continental names it still bears, Milvus regalis, 

 Milan royal, in France ; Milano real in Spain. In Germany it 

 is Rother Milan; in Italy Falco con la coda bifurcata; in Portugal 

 Milhafre and Milhano ; and in Sweden Glada. Though small in 

 bulk and light in weight, the Kite is, in reality, a large bird, 

 exceeding two feet in length, and five from tip to tip of the ex- 

 tended wings. 



Howard Saunders, who has had good experience of its breed- 

 ing habits in Southern Spain, says the nest is always fantasti- 

 cally decorated with dirty rags, bones, bits of old shoes, etc., and 

 though now out of date, unhappily, in England, Shakespeare's 

 warning is still of practical value in Spain, ' Where the kite 



