COMMON KITE. 75 



two favourite localities in the counties of Inverness, Perth, and Aberdeen. 

 It formerly bred in the west of Scotland, in Stirlingshire, Ayrshire, and 

 the Isle of Arran, but now seems completely exterminated from these 

 districts. Mr. Booth, in his ' Eough Notes,' mentions that the Kite is 

 still found in various districts ; and in most of the glens in which he col- 

 lected eggs and birds, some six years ago, the birds were still present, 

 although a few pairs seemed to have left the district. It does not seem to 

 occur in any part of the Outer Hebrides ; but, on the authority of Elwes, 

 it is still seen in the island of Islay ; and Dixon, when in Skye, in the 

 summer of 1881, saw the remains of this bird nailed to the wall of a shed 

 which served as a gamekeeper's museum. In the Orkneys and Shetlands 

 the Kite appears still more rarely, Saxby having only on four occasions 

 seen birds that may possibly be referred to this species. In Ireland it is 

 only known as a very rare straggler. 



The Kite does not occur in Iceland or Greenland. It is a bird exclu- 

 sively confined to the Western Palsearctic Region, and may be said to 

 breed in most parts of Europe, to be resident in the central and southern 

 portions, and migratory in the north. In Sweden it is said to breed as 

 far north as lat. 61° ; but it is not known mth certainty to inhabit Finland, 

 whilst in Russia it breeds as far north as Archangel. These northern 

 birds migrate southwards in winter ; and at that season the Kite is a 

 common bird in North-western Africa, in Algeria, the Dayats of the 

 Sahara, and among the rocks of the Atlas, where a few birds also remain 

 to breed. Its presence in Egypt, or in North-eastern Africa, is very 

 doubtful ; and Captain Shelley observes that he knows of no instance of 

 its capture in the former country, where its place is taken by an allied 

 bird, Milvus (sgyptius. It occurs, however, on passage in Asia Minor, and 

 winters commonly in Palestine. The western range of the Kite appears 

 to be Madeira and the Canai'ies, where it is said to be a resident; and 

 Dr. Dohrn also met with it in the Cape-Verds. Its eastern limit is 

 somewhat difficult to trace. According to Eversmann it occasionally 

 occurs about the Southern Volga; and Severtzow several times noticed it 

 in the Government of Veronsk ; whilst Pallas says it winters on the Lower 

 Volga. As Sundevall, however, declares that this is a mistake, and as 

 Bogdanow never observed it in the Volga region, and says that it becomes 

 scarce in the province of KiefF, its eastern range is probably the basin of 

 the Don. In North-east Russia, SabanaefF, in his ' Avifauna of the Ural,' 

 states positively that he has seen several Red Kites, amongst hundreds 

 of Milvus ater, flying towards some dead animals in the Kaslinsky Ural ; 

 so that it would appear that the bird gradually retires westward as it 

 approaches the southern limit of its eastern range. 



The Kite may be easily distinguished upon the wing by its deeply-forked 

 tail and the peculiar nature of its flight. For hours this bird will keep 



