2 
KITE. 
at the time I discovered the remains of the Grouse, only eggs at the point 
of hatching and a single nestling 
with its eves as vet unopened. , 
The Kite appears by no means a powerful bird ; and how it manages to possess itself of so strong and 
heavy a prey as an old Grouse, I am at a loss to understand. In most instances I have noticed that young 
birds were brought as food to the nest; and where I have seen the remains plentiful they were in many 
cases so old and decayed as to be past judging at what age they had been captured. Still I we 1 remember 
that most of the feathers scattered about belonged evidently to young birds ; I also particularly remarked 
that the only old cock Grouse I ever found on one of their nests (perfectly fresh-killed and m a fit state to 
examine) was minus the head. This bird I fancy, from the manner in which the neck was lacerated, had been 
struck down by a Peregrine (these Falcons frequently kill more than they require, leaving their victims lying 
where they fall), and afterwards picked up and brought in by the Kite. Probably the greater part of the Grouse 
destroyed by this species are wounded or diseased birds, with the exception of the young that they take when 
their own nestlings are in the most ravenous stage. The squirrels must, I should imagine, have been surprised 
on the ground, while on their way from one tree to another in some open part of the country, as among the 
branches so active an animal would, I fancy, have been more than a match for its captor. 
Formerly the Kite was stated to be remarkably easily taken by means of traps. During the last ten years, 
however, I have only known about half a dozen captured in this manner. This species appears to have been 
entirely banished from the woods in the more open and cultivated parts of the country, and those that are left 
have, in most instances, taken up their quarters in wild and remote districts where little or no trapping is 
carried on ; also in deer-forests, where, of course, vermin are never molested. I was told by an old keeper, 
in one of the glens in the Northern Highlands, that about forty years ago, when these birds were common, lie 
used to trap numbers in the spring by using old rags instead of bait, the birds being in the habit of taking 
these materials for constructing their nests. I am also well acquainted with a forester’s lodge in another district 
where, even at the present time, it is useless during the nesting-season to put out any small articles of wearing- 
apparel to dry unless a close watch is kept, as they are sure to be carried off by the Kites before the day is 
over. 
All the nests of this species that I have seen have been placed in trees, and in every instance a Scotch 
fir has been resorted to. The position of the nest varies considerably — sometimes in the very topmost twigs of 
a small bending pine that is scarcely able to bear the weight of even the lightest climber, occasionally among 
the higher branches of some large and spreading fir, conspicuous by its size among the giants of the forest, and 
at times at only the height of fifteen or eighteen feet, placed close to the main stem, where even the immense 
collection of rubbish that is used as a nursery by this species is scarcely noticed, a situation having been chosen 
where several large limbs branch out from the trunk. 
I have never yet had the opportunity of visiting a nest that was placed among rocks or cliffs ; but I was 
informed by a keeper on the west coast of the Highlands, in a wild district where large timber was scarce, that 
he had the previous season destroyed the greater part of a brood of Kites which had been reared in a nest among 
some large and broken slabs of rock on a steep hill-side. He described the birds accurately ; but on searching 
the spot we could find no traces of their having visited the locality for breeding-purposes again, although one 
of the old birds had escaped the massacre of the previous season. I would not hazard an opinion as to what 
species of Hawk it could have been, as not even a feather was preserved ; and I know by past experience that 
it is useless to trust to the memory of any person who is not thoroughly well informed about the bird they 
attempt to describe. 
I he difference in size between the male and female, which is so conspicuous in many of our birds of prey, 
is scarcely to be noticed in this species. My own opinion was that the male when on wing appeared slightly 
the largest ; the naturalist, however, who prepared the specimens I shot stated otherwise. The colouring of 
