THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE KITE 



Strolling into the well-known auction rooms of 

 Mr Stevens in King Street, Covent Garden, where 

 all sorts of natural curiosities are from time to time 

 dispersed, my attention was attracted by a stuffed 

 specimen of the Kite {Milvus regalis), which, accord- 

 ing to the sale catalogue, was obtained many years 

 ago in Monk's Wood, Huntingdonshire, and had 

 belonged to the late Mr Doubleday, of Epping, a 

 well-known collector of birds/ For the naturalist, 

 a more interesting souvenir of the past could not 

 well be found ; for Monk's Wood was one of the 

 last-known breeding haunts of this bird in the 

 Midland Counties, and the specimen before me, 

 which from another source I learnt had been re- 

 ceived by Mr Doubleday " in the flesh," had no 

 doubt been treasured by its former owner as one of 

 the rarest of British birds. Knowing- something- of 

 the former history of the Kite as a resident in 

 England, it was perhaps not surprising that I 

 should find myself bidding for so interesting a 



^ Henry Doubleday of Epping died on June 29, 1875, aged 

 sixty-seven, having disposed of his collection of stuffed birds 

 during his lifetime. It -was sold by auction at the Cock Hotel, 

 Epping, August 23, 1871. The specimen of the Kite above 

 mentioned, together with an adult female Gosha-\vk, obtained near 

 Yarmouth, formed Lot 85 in the Sale Catalogue and realised ^^4. 



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