KITE. 15 



distinctly see its eyes and its yellow feet ; it then flew off 

 across the bay as if for Hastings. 



An old gamekeeper of my grandfather's, who died in i855j 

 at the age of 73, has often told me that in his younger days 

 the " forky- tailed Kites " were not uncommon in Sussex, and 

 that they gave a great deal of trouble by taking young ducks 

 and chickens from the farm-yards, but I never heard him say 

 anything of their nesting. I probably never asked him. 

 Montagu, in his 'Ornithological Dictionary,' states that a 

 Kite was knocked down with a broom and captured, at a 

 farm near Hastings, while it was attacking young ducks and 

 chickens about the house. 



Mr. Knox mentions the Kite as occurring once near 

 Brighton, and again at Sidlesham, between 1839 and 1849 

 (O. R. 1st edition, p. 184). Mr. Booth writes that while 

 shooting in the neighbourhood of Brighton, in the autumn of 

 1878, he saw one of these birds passing westward at a con- 

 siderable elevation. 



In Willughby's ' Ornithology ' (Book ii. p. 74) , printed in 

 1678, may be found the following trite remarks on the flight 

 of the Kite : — 



" Spreading its Wings it so ballances it self in the Air, that it 

 can rest as it were unmovable a long time in the same place ; 

 yea, without at all, or but rarely moving its Wings, it glides 

 through the Air from place to place ; whence perchance it took 

 its English name Glead .... This sort of Birds (saith 

 Pliny) seems to have taught men the Art of steering a Ship 

 by the turning of their Tails : Nature shewing in the Air what 

 was needful to be done in the Deep. For hence (as Aldrovan- 

 dus goes on) it is probable that men learned to apply a 

 Rudder; viz.. When they saw the Kite, by turning her Tail 

 sometimes this way, sometimes that way, to direct or vary her 

 course, and turn about her body at pleasure; they also 

 attempting somewhat like, added the Helm to the Ship, by 



