84 BRITISH BIRDS. 



At last, however, I found one containing two fresh eggs. It was built on 

 a horizontal branch near the summit of a lofty pine tree, and was con- 

 structed of sticks, lined with fragments of paper of all sorts and colours, 

 and with an equally mixed assortment of dry dung (of horse, cattle, &c.) . 

 During the day the Crown Prince and some of his party found two more 

 nests containing eggs very slightly incubated. The Black Kite breeds 

 later than the Common Kite ; for I found a nest of the latter containing 

 three young, and Graf Wilszek took a clutch of three hard-set eggs. In 

 all the nests that I visited there was a quantity of paper and dung. These 

 pine-forests are frequently broken by broad strips of sun-baked mud, which 

 during the winter are, no doubt, a series of ' lagunas.'' The Black Kites 

 congregated in numbers on these open places, where they crouch very much 

 after the manner of Pratincoles. I crept under cover of some scrub to within 

 a hundred and fifty yards of a party of twenty-two, and watched their pro- 

 ceedings through my binocular. Some were crouching on the ground, 

 whilst others were walking about, apparently feeding. When they de- 

 tected my presence they rose with a shrill tremulous cry. I came upon 

 many such parties of them, and on each occasion tried to make out what 

 they were feeding upon. The ground was as hard as iron, and the scanty 

 vegetation on it brown and dead ; so I conclude that they must have been 

 catching some insects, judging from the frequency with which they pecked 

 at the ground." 



The eggs of the Black Kite vary from two to five in number, 

 but in Pomerania two is the regular clutch. Groebel states that the 

 number of eggs is usually three, occasionally only two. He has 

 also found four, and on one occasion as many as five. The eggs of the 

 Black Kite closely resemble those of the Common Kite, but are perhaps, 

 on an average, more jichly marked. The ground-colour is either dull white 

 or the faintest of pale blue, more or less boldly spotted and blotched with 

 browns of different shades. Some specimens are far more richly marked 

 than others. In some eggs the markings are deep rich reddish brown, dis- 

 tributed in large patches, with scratchings and specks of lighter brown 

 between. Others are finely powdered over the entire surface with 

 freckles of colour, here and there becoming confluent, especially on the 

 larger end. A very handsome variety has the smaller end clouded with 

 pale brown, here and there marked with rich brown, and the rest of the 

 egg spotted with pale brown and faint shell-markings of lilac. Another 

 and more rare variety is streaked on the small half with pale brown, similar 

 to a Bunting's egg, the streaks becoming confluent at the small end of 

 the egg. Many Black Kites' eggs are almost vmdistinguishable from 

 Common Buzzard's, and, except that on an average they are slightly 

 smaller, scarcely differ from Common Kite's. They possess little or no 



