136 DICTIONARY OF NAMES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 
Kina Harry Briackcar: The BLACKCAP. (Norfolk.) 
Kinetet: The GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. 
Kio. A Cornish name for the COMMON SNIPE. 
Kier: The COMMON TERN. (Provincial.) 
Krep. A local name for the Terns about Dungeness and 
Lydd. 
Krrr-Mew. A local name for the COMMON TERN. Kirr is 
from the ery, and Mew is Old Eng. for Gull. 
KisHieraik: The KITTIWAKE. (Orkneys.) From its cry. 
KistrEL: The KESTREL. (Turner.) 
Kir: The FIELDFARE. (Cheshire.) 
KITE [No. 250]. The name, of great antiquity, is from the 
A.Sax.cyta. It occursin 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 localitiesin 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, sc. 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 
powers of flight being beyond those of the lesser kinds of 
falcons. 
Kirt: Used erroneously for the MARSH-HARRIER and the 
COMMON BUZZARD (Ireland); the KESTREL (Shrop- 
shire). 
Kirti-akKeE: The KITTIWAKE GULL. (Flamborough.) 
Kirtre or Kitty: The KITTIWAKE GULL. (East Anglia, 
Yorkshire, Banffshire.) 
Kirtrr Nreepie: The COMMON SANDPIPER. (Kirkcud- 
bright.) 
