DISAPPEARANCE OF THE KITE 411 



border, and it is some satisfaction to know that, in 

 the midst of the daily persecution which attends 

 the larger birds of prey, and some even of the 

 smaller kinds, the Kite still finds a home in at least 

 three of the Welsh counties, where so recently as 

 1892 and 1893 ^ was made acquainted with their 

 nesting-places. I abstain, however, from naming 

 even the counties, lest by so doing I should unwit- 

 tingly hasten the disappearance of a species whose 

 extirpation every true naturalist would deplore. 



In 1822 the Kite was very numerous in 

 Glamorganshire, where it used to breed regularly 

 in Leekwith Wood, Cardiff, and in the Aberdare 

 Valley, where Lord Aberdare had seen and counted 

 as many as five-and-twenty Kites and Buzzardsabove 

 the Duffryn Craig. In 1 846 a young Kite taken from 

 the nest at the Devil's Bridge in Cardiganshire lived 

 in captivity until December 1873 {Zoologist, 1874). 



In Scotland, the dead, as it is there called, still 

 "struggles for existence," and in three or four 

 counties that might be named it still breeds annually 

 in wild places, remote from the haunts of man. 

 The late Duke of Argyll once saw as many as nine 

 Kites on the wing at one time at Inveraray. In 

 July 1876, being at Brighton, I called on Pratt, the 

 bird-stuffer, and there saw two young Kites which 

 were being preserved for the late Mr E. T. Booth, 

 who had procured them either in Perthshire or Ross- 

 shire. They were " branchers," and had they been 

 allowed to live would soon have been able to fly 

 well. They had nearly got rid of their down, but 

 the tail was not yet' forked. They may be seen in 



