K I T E .
MILFUS REG ALLS.
THE citizens of London would at the present day open their eyes with amazement to behold a Kite constructing
its eumborsomo nest anion!; the branches of their grimy trees, or soaring over the river-banks in quest of
prey ; yet, if we are to put faith in old records, such sights must have been of common occurrence in days
gone by.
I t is seldom now that a Kite is observed in the south, though forty or fifty years ago they appear to have
been numerous. Tho only one that ever came under my own observation in England "as while •hooting En
the neighbourhood of Brighton during the autumn of 1S7B; I then noticed one passing west at • considerable
elevation. On mentioning the fact to the farmer on whose land I was, he told me that when he was a young
man, over sixty years previously, he had known bulb Kites and Buzzards plentiful in a large wood near
Canterbury. He slated he had frequently robbed the nests of the Kites, and that it was always considered the
safest plan to mount first higher up the tree, so as to get a good view of the interior, as tho birds were in
the habit of carrying snakes and vipers to feed their young; these reptiles having at times siiflifdent strength
left to hiss and strike if touched,
;, the yoi
Some works I ha
I must say, from my
their tastes. In boiu
and, on several oectisi
The Inst nest I had a chance of o
fresh-killed Grouse lying beside t
The old birds usually have
break up before taking to the y
bare mound of earth ; at other
coarse undergrowth, they prepare
this species, an old forester poiu
of heather and dead and rotten 1
some feathers for flics; and havi
thinner clad but possibly a wise:
neighbourhood. In addition to
keepers style " the Kite's drcssin
to which they carry their prey to
under the branches of a large i
laid for many months. This sto
the nest of the pair of birds freqi
•ndered it necessary to take c
ivo " reptiles and earrioi
t, that the Kites of the
when making an Inspection,
arming part of the diet of lit
Idedly
the food on the bn
which they carry their
e stump of a tree, a la
leighbourhood of tho n
of a tree. Once, while
eleai
dered his captive
s I judged by the
ic food for tl
tike Grey Cro
M counted tin
1 weathcrbeati
;ht together f
listanee of oik
birds; but
refined in
f Grouse and Pees its,
be their favourite food,
in the young birds had a
•y to partially pluck and
moss-covered atone, or a
is covered with long and
ising a nest belonging lo
space among long tufts
bird, lie had only needed
poor wretch was released, a
i w hile we remained in his
.-ouug (which I have heard
occasionally have some spot
mains of over thirty Grouse
ikcletoas, and probably had
.he beneht of the young, as
ndred yards, and contained,