I30 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



these recent Welsh Kites' nests. It is a large and very conspicuous structure of 

 sticks, placed high up in the fork of a tall tree standing apart by itself. 



The Kite has the curious habit, also common to JackdaAvs, of carrying off all 

 manner of articles, rags, " lesser linen," especially am-thing glittering, to add to 

 the lining of its nest ; Lord Lilford knew of Several instances in which purses of 

 mone}^ had been found so utilized. The eggs, laid in April, or early in Ma}', are 

 generallv three in number, sometimes only two ; the}' are dull bluish white, spotted 

 or streaked with rust}' red, and vary greatly in size ; some in the writer's cabinet 

 are covered over with minute streaks ; others are suffused with rust colour ; others 

 are nearly pure white ; others with the rust colour collected in a large patch at 

 the smaller end. In shape they are rather more elongate than the eggs of the 

 Common Buzzard, to which they have a great resemblance. Average measurement 

 2'25 inches, by i"75 inches. 



In spite of its size and formidable appearance, the Kite is a cowardly bird. 

 " Its depredations are confined," according to Montagu, " to such animals as are 

 found on the ground, young rabbits, hares, and game of all kinds, poultry, and 

 young birds incapable of flying. It will also destroy young lambs, and feeds 

 greedily on carrion ; in defect of these it readily eats mice, worms, and insects, 

 and even snakes, the bones of which we have taken from the nest. It frequently 

 resorts to the environs of towns to feed on offal, and is seen to sweep such matter 

 from the surface of water with great dexterity." Montagu was much amused by 

 witnessing its audacity as a thief: — "A poor woman was washing some entrails 

 in a stream of water, part of which extended a few yards out of the basket placed 

 in the water : the hungry bird had long been hovering over, viewing with anxious 

 eye so delicious a bait, and took the opportunity of actually pouncing upon and 

 carrjdng off a part, in spite of all the woman's efforts with hands and tongue, the 

 latter of which might have alarmed a more powerful enemy." In the old days of 

 Hawking the Kite often afforded good flights Avhen pursued by the Peregrine, and 

 for this circumstance was entitled ' regalis,' as its chase was considered worthy of 

 Kings. As late as 1773 this sport was indulged in by the Earl of Orford and 

 Col. Thornton on Thetford Heath, in Norfolk, in which county Kites were then 

 found in abundance. The old names of the bird testify to its once common dis- 

 persion throughout the kingdom ; Gled, or dead, from its graceful gliding flight ; 

 Puttock, in Shakespeare, etc. ; Common Kite ; Fork-tailed Kite, etc. The cry of 

 the Kite is a shrill scream ; when Keble, in the Christian Year, wrote of " the 

 wheeling Kite's wild solitary cry," the bird was then, (1827) 110 doubt, common 

 enough in Hampshire. 



Dresser states that the Kite is found exclusively in the Western Palseartic 



