The Kite, '27 



Family— FALCONID/E. Genus— MH. VUS. 



The Kites. 



THERE are, Dresser states, six representatives of the Genus Milvus, all 

 belonging to the Old World, of which one was fonnerly a characteristic 

 British bird, but is now all but lost to our Ornis, owing to persecution. One 

 other, the Black Kite, has been only once obtained as a straggler in this country-. 

 The Kites are lovers of the woodlands, of graceful soaring flight, the}' frequent 

 the neighbourhood of rivers, and are partial to inhabited districts, commonl}' 

 venturing into towns where they are iiseful scavengers. They build in loft}' trees, 

 and in cliffs, using all manner of strange articles for the lining of their nests. 

 Their wings are long, and the tail is long and forked. 



Family— FA L CONID^. 



Kite. 



Milvus idinus, Savigny. 



THE present centur}' has witnessed the almost complete extermination of the 

 Red Kite in the British Isles, formerh* one of our most characteristic birds 

 that might have been seen wheeling in its buo3'ant and graceful flight, and dis- 

 playing its long forked tail in au}' wooded landscape. In the home and midland 

 counties it was especiall}' numerous, becoming scarcer in the extreme south-west. 

 In the middle ages it is on record that foreigners used to be astonished at its 

 numbers even in London itself, where, no doubt, it was a useful scavenger. 



