The Kite. 129 



cross the British Channel into Devonshire ; the writer has known of several having 

 been either trapped or shot, one so recently as in the spring of last year (1896), 

 and the only Kite he himself has ever had the pleasure to see wheeling in the 

 air was one he saw near Bratton, in North Devon, many years ago. Some woods 

 in Huntingdonshire were among its last resorts in England ; while in Radnorshire, 

 in North Wales, it was still nesting in 1870. 



Some notes on "Birds in Mid Wales" in the Zoologist for 1895, by Mr. J. 

 H. Salter, give the latest account of Kites in the British Islands. Mr. Salter 

 considered it "doubtful if more than seven or eight pairs are left in tlic Princi- 

 pality. I know of no recent instance of the Kite having nested in Cardiganshire. 

 At Devil's Bridge, which was formerly a favourite havmt, I hear of thirteen having 

 been seen on the wing at once. The last nest in this locality was about i860. 

 The female was shot from the nest, and the eggs taken. Two 3-oung birds from 

 the same neighbourhood were brought to Nanteos. The female, after killing her 

 companion, lived there for about twenty years in captivity, and laid one egg. 

 The Kite wanders to some extent, and occasionally revisits its old haunts." He 

 further states: — "On March 26th, 1894, a pair were reported to be building in a 

 small wood of thin oaks, where for some years they have persisted in attempting 

 to nest in full view of a neighbouring farm. I was not able to visit this locality 

 till May 6th. The nest was soon found, but was empty, the eggs having evidently 

 been taken. A specimen of the lining included a piece of coarse sacking, old 

 news-paper, and tobacco-paper. Near at hand was last year's nest, and at no great 

 distance a third older nest. In the latter were two or three pen-feathers, showing 

 that it had held young Kites, probably in 1892. While this investigation was in 

 progress, a Kite passed over the wood. Passing a bold wooded bluff at the 

 junction of three valleys — a great meeting-place for Kites, Buzzards, Ravens, and 

 Carrion Crows, and the scene of constant aerial skirmishing — we mounted to a 

 wooded gulley above which a pair of Kites soon appeared. The}^ w-ere silent, but 

 their animated flight, which I had never seen to such advantage, showed their 

 interest in our approach. As they rose or dipped behind the sky-line, the forked 

 tail was now closed, now spread, and inclined to one side or the other wdth each 

 easy and graceful turn. The nest proved to be one in which we had found 3?oung 

 Carrion Crows last j^ear. It had been enlarged and repaired, and b}- climbing the 

 slope I could look into it, thus ascertaining that it contained one &gg. This was 

 no doubt the second attempt at breeding of the pair w-hose nest we had seen 

 previously. Report spoke of a second pair in a neighbouring valley. A farmer 

 told me that he remembered an instance of the Kite, in general a tree-builder, 

 having nested upon the rocks." The writer possesses a photograph of one of 



Vol. Ill X 



