Vol. XxXxix.] 4, 
occasion the skin of a hedgehog filled the middle of the 
nest, with three full-grown young Kites sitting around it! 
Although these Kites have been inbred for so many years 
their eggs are remarkably fertile, a clear egg being very 
uncommon. LHxcept man, their chief enemy seems to be the 
Carrion-Crow, which is extremely common in Wales. These 
combine to try and make the old bird leave her eggs. 
The same nest appears to be rarely re-occupied, but a new 
nest is built in the same quarter of the wood. Some strange 
material is often added to the lining, such as rags, paper, 
and often a piece of rope. Kites do not seem to object to 
Buzzards nesting near them. On one occasion, when 
standing close to two Buzzards’ nests, each containing fuil- 
grown young, two pairs of old Buzzards soared over 
“mewing”’ and making fine stoops at me, nearly reaching 
the tree-tops. A Kite came and made repeated and splendid’ 
slanting stoops at the Buzzards, but took not the slightest 
notice of me, although she had young just out of the 
nest close by.. During the winter the Kites congregate at 
roosting-time, several (as many as thirty) in a sycamore 
tree in a farm square. In early spring they soar at a 
great height in small lots of five or seven together. 
Mr. P. F. Bunyarp exhibited mounted specimens of nest- 
feathers and down of the Harlequin-Duck (Histrionicus 
histrionicus), from Iceland, and made the following 
remarks :— 
The only description of these feathers which I have been 
able to find is in Dresser’s ‘Hggs of the Birds of Europe,’ 
where he says, in‘ alluding to the down, that the feathers 
amongst it are dirty white at the base, then sooty brown 
aud broadly terminated with white. This is obviously an 
error. 
The correct description is as follows :—Type, pale choco- 
late-brown at the basal end, paler immediately around the 
quill, with a well-defined band of white, terminated with 
dark chocolate-brown, very distinctive. 
