(mbits of the bird, the word ‘ b ite ’ was often used as a term- of reproach. For example:__‘You k ite1
(Anthony and Cleopatra, Act III. Scene 2 ) ; and 'Detested k ite ' (King Lear, Act I. Scene 4).
“ The intractable disposition of tile bird is thus noticed in the ‘ Taming o f the Shrew,' Act IV. Scene 1:__
* * “ W a t c h h e r a s w e w a t c h t h e s e k i t e s
T h a t b a t e a n d b e a t a n d w i l l n o t b e o b e d i e n t .
“ Another curious fact in its natural history is adverted to in the ‘Winter’s T a le ' (Act IV. Scene 2 ),
where it is s a id :— ' When the kite builds look to lesser linen.'
“ This line may perhaps be best illustrated by a description o f a Kite’s nest taken in Huntingdonshire,
and still in the possession of a friend at Newcastle. The outside is composed o f strong stick s; the
lining of small pieces of linen, part o f a saddle-girth, a bit o f a hanest-gloec, p art o f a straw bonnet, pieces
of paper, and a worsted g a r te r; and in the midst of this singular collection of materials were deposited two
C g ifS .”
The Rev. H. 11. Tristram, speaking, in his work entitled ‘ The Great Sahara,' o f the habits of the Egyptian
Kite (M im s /Egpptius), s a y s “ Its nest, the marine-store-shop of the desert, is decorated with whatever
scraps o/loumouses and coloured rags can be collected; and to these are added on every surrounding branch
the cast-off coats o f serpents, large scraps of thin bark, and perhaps a Bustard’s wing.”-—‘ Zoologist,’ 1866,
p. 409 et seq. In olden times the Kite was not only around and in the metropolis, but the citizens
could not take a jaunt to Highgate or Epping Forest without witnessing its charming aerial flight and
circling evolutions between them and the azure sky, a sight that would gladden the eyes o f every naturalist
but which is not now to be seen. Of course in the great forests and large clumps o f trees in every English
county the bird was equally numerous, and not less so in most parts o f Scotland, Wales, and Ireland; sanitary
science, the clearance of woods and forests, extended cultivation, and the preservation o f game h^ve, however
so thinned its numbers that it is almost extirpated. From the moment these measures commenced, the fate
of the bird was sealed; and were I to affirm that now, in 1868, there are not five pairs of Kites in the
British Islands, I should scarcely exceed the chances o f probability; and where to look for a breeding pair
either in tile New Forest or in any p art of the Highlands, Wales, Scotland, or Ireland, I know not • but that
the bird still clings to some of its old haunts is certain ; for Mr. Henry NichoIIs, jun., records in the ‘ Zoologist’'
for 1863 the shooting of a fine old male on the banks o f the Avon, near Kingsbridge, in Devonshire, on the
13th of October, 1862; and in a communication to the same volume, p. 8441, by W. Christy Horsfall Esn
dated Horsforth Low Hall, near Leeds, Jan . 2, 1863, that gentleman says, ‘‘We have had a Kite in the
woods here for the last eighteen months. I gave orders that it should not be molested, in the hope it
would find a m ate ; but although it is still about, it has not yet met with one.”
Montagu, when he wrote, had seen but one in Devonshire in twelve years; and Mr. Couch mentions two
instances of its appearance in Cornwall. Waterton has noticed the bird and its habits in Yorkshire ■ and
Selby stated fo rt, years ago that, “ though rare in Northumberland and Durham, it is more frequent in
Westmoreland and Cumberland. Dr. Heysham says that the Kite bred about the same period in the woods
near Arinathwaite, and also ra those near Ullswater.” In the interval that has elapsed, all this has become
changed, and Lincolnshire is the last p art of the eastern portion of England in which it has bred • several
instances are mentioned Professor Newton’s ‘ O otheca Wolleyana,' to which my readers are referred.
The persecution to which the bird has been subjected in Britain has been less relentlessly carried out on
the continent of Europe; and in North Africa and many other countries it still holds its own. Lord
Lilford observed ,t to be rather abundant in Acarnania, and states that it is very common and a constant
resident in Sicily and Calabria. It is not found so far to the eastward as India, its place there hein-
occupied by the Mdcusgoomda. Species of the same form inhabit China, Japan, Africa, and Australia ■ 1, 1,1°
so far as I am aware, no true Kite (Milvus) occurs in Polynesia or America
To this short history of our Kite I m a, add that it is the finest species' o f its genus, that the sexes are
very similar ,n colour, that ,t usually builds its nest on the fork o f a large tree, o f sticks, lined with dry
grass, wool, and other soft mater,als, and lays two, and sometimes three eggs, which are subject to much
diversity o f colouring: they are of a short oval form, measuring two inches and two lines in length b , one
inch and nine lines m b read th ; o f a dull white hue, marked with a few reddish spots over the larger end
Mr. Hewitson mentions one that was closely covered all over with light rufous blotches, and another with
beautiful tints oflilac and purple relieved with brown. woJklyMe Zre"tS “ maIe ab°"t tW0',hirdS °f ,he N °flife’ fr°m “ beaUt‘fuI 8ketC,‘ “i« f°‘ ‘hi*