NOTES AND QUERIES. 311 



in Sussex and Hampshire we have often heard keepers and beaters call it 

 " French Magpie," a name by which it is known also in Devonshire, though 

 in other counties this name is bestowed upon the Grey Shrike.— Ed.] 



Preservation of the Kite in Wales. — I write to ask if nothing can be 

 done on behalf of our unfortunate Welsh Kites. I have lately visited a 

 remote district where they still linger. Ornithologists will understand the 

 interest excited by the first view of these fine birds upon the wing. Their 

 flight is like the Buzzard's stately sailing, interrupted now and again by a 

 few slow flaps suggestive of the Heron. The wings are longer and more 

 pointed than those of the Buzzard, and show more "elbow." Two pairs 

 were met with ; a few others might possibly have been found had time 

 allowed of further search. A farmer showed me the eggs of the first pair, 

 which he took about April 25th, at the request of a gentleman collector, 

 who was expected to call for them shortly. He also pointed out the nest, 

 which would have filled a large wheel-barrow, and was almost certainly 

 more than one year's accumulation. It was in a thin wood of " spear" oaks, 

 about thirty-five feet up a slender tree of some ten inches diameter, just at 

 the point where the upper branches diverged. It was composed of oak and 

 birch sticks, and was from 2 ft. 3 in. to 2 ft. 6 in. across ; 2 ft. 6 in. deep. 

 After being disturbed here, the birds made an attempt to nest at a spot 

 about half-a-mile distaut, but were apparently driven off by crows before 

 auy eggs were laid. At the date when I saw them (May 23rd) they may 

 have been building again, but the hen was not sitting. I was shown the 

 nest of a second pair on May 23rd. It was in a similar tree, but only 

 about twenty feet from the ground. The eggs had been taken a day or two 

 previously, as the bark scratched by climbing-irons indicated. The lining 

 of the nest in all cases consisted chiefly of rags and newspaper, once with 

 the addition of a blue sugar-bag. I was told that another pair had built in 

 a tree which grew from the side of a deep ravine, and that the female bird 

 had been killed on the nest by a stone thrown from above. I cannot confirm 

 this, though the description was so circumstantial as to leave little room for 

 doubt. Unless something be done, the birds are doomed in this locality. 

 While the trees are still bare, they build a nest which can be seen a mile 

 away, in a tree which any schoolboy can climb. Shepherd lads borrow a 

 gun to shoot the old bird from the nest, or take the young ones, which, 

 bedraggled and with wings cut, mope about the stables and kennels of the 

 neighbouring gentry. Others stray down to the pheasant preserves, and 

 get trapped or shot. There are no trees tall enough to give them the least 

 security in nesting ; no large preserved woods where, under protection of 

 landed proprietors, they might find a refuge. The small occupiers bear a 

 grudge against them for the occasional loss of a chicken. One gentleman, 

 whose keeper persecutes them, might perhaps be induced to give orders for 

 them to be left alone. If one small wood could be protected, the safe breeding 



