KITE
increased, we could plainly discern, by the swollen burns and the channels scoured aerom our track, boa
heavy had been the force of the storm.
"Before we reached our journey's end the sun was shining brightly ; but on arriving at the lodge we
learned that the tempest had been so severe in the early part of the night that the inmates had been half
frightened to death, and had all retired to bed as being the safest place.
" 28th. The storm of the previous night had cooled the air, and the day was beautifully clear and fine.
As I was expecting a hard night's work, I rested during the day, and starting in the evening reached t lie
bothy, where the keepers were waiting, by half-past eleven. Our walk through the forest to the nest was a
contrast to the last time we passed over the ground. The night was lovely and the wind a trifle chilly, which,
after the weather we bad recently experienced, was by no means unpleasant. We reached the plantation in
which the nest was placed soon after one o'clock ; and, owing to the darkness, it was some little lime before 1
was securely packed into my shelter and provided with all the rugs, waterproofs, provisions, and other
necessaries (I bad also a bottle of \ iuegar, by which 1 hoped to keep oil' the attacks of the midges, which was,
however, an utter failure). By about half-past one my arrangements were all completed, and the men retired
to their waiting-place in the burn. Owing to the shadows thrown by the trees, it was at first so dark that I
could not even make out the whereabouts of the nest. Soon after two o'clock I discovered the young bird
stretching himself and flapping his wiiiirs, having apparently just woke up. Half an hour later the old female
pitched suddenly on one of the lower branches of a lir, wit bin fifteen yards of my hiding-place ; she had in her
talons a Peewit, which she partially plucked (every feather on her bead being thrown op on end during the
operation), and then Hew to another branch ahout forty yards away ; here I could hardly natch her movements,
owing to the denseness of the timber. After some time she disappeared wit bout my uolicing her depart ore.
" Nothing more was seen of either of the birds for about an hour, when the female again Hew from
a tree right over my head, and it is quite possible that she might hare been sitting there the whole of the
time. She then continued flying in circles over my bead for more than three hours—at times sweeping down
to within twenty yards of where I was concealed, and, after hoi-ering for a second or two, evidently trying to
make out what was amiss, shooting up to a great height and sailing round and round the wood till she.
gradually diminished the circles and again came to close quarters. Almost incessantly she kept uttering a
most mournful cry, which ended in a long-draw u plaintive whistle. Till nearly seven o'clock I had seen but
one bird, the female, easily recognized by her ragged plumage, a couple of feathers being deficient iu one wing.
She had as yet never attempted to settle to the young one; indeed, since her lirsl appearance with the Peewit,
which was soon dropped, she had no prey with her. I had been in no hurry to fire, as I was certain that, by
leaving my shelter while she was out of sight on one of her longer circles, I could, if I wished, at any time
have an easy shot, and 1 was in hopes that the male might show himself.
" A t last the attacks of the midges, which I had patiently endured fur the last six or seven hours, became
almost unbearable; and I was preparing to start from my hiding-place (from the interior I eonld only lake a
pot shot at the nest) when 1 recognized a slightly shriller scream, and, waiting a moment, a much liner bird
passed over.
" He turned iu an instant, aud was back before I could get out ; the next time be passed out of sight,
he seemed to be sweeping further off; so creeping from under the boughs, I had ample time to get ready
before he reappeared. 1 could plainly see his shadow thrown through the upper branches of the trees before
he came in view; and as there was an open space round the nest, he afforded the easiest possible shot, ami fell
as dead as a stone at my feet. The female, who was at the lime at a great height, iiuiiu diatch sailed away
to the north without turning round to see what had happened tu her mate or young."
This is the specimen from which the Plate of the adult male is taken.
" I had ordered the men to come up if they heard a shot, and a very few minutes bad elapsed before they
A dull nml sultry morning had been followed by excessive beat, and after midday ttic weather gave every
indication of an approaching storm. Shortly after one o'clock the gloom and darkness increased, and heavy
thunder was heard rumbling among the hills both north and south of us. On leaving the bothy, we walked
ahout three miles on towards the wood in which the Kites were breeding—a long straggling belt of timber
composed entirely of Scotch lir. The nest lias placed in a fork, where three limbs branched out from the main
stem, aboot tweiity.five or thirty feet from the ground, and was a rather larger structure than 1 had previously
seen. It contained one young bird and a bad egg, and, when last visited by the keepers, the larder
provided for the nestling consisted of a Grouse, a Duck, and a Peewit. The men had already put up a small
shelter of fir-boughs, to screen me from the sight of the old birds, within about thirty yards of the tree ; and here
I took up my position about half-past six, when the keepers retinal to a btiru about a mile distant, so as not to
binder the approach of the birds. 1 had nut been waiting above half an hour when a single Kile passed over
at a great height, evidently being aware that something was wrong. After circling two or three (inn's over
the nest, it took its departure, without making any attempt to come down to the young bird ; and although I
I was abb- to watch it by means of the glasses, I could see no signs that it carried any prey. As might
naturally he ex peeled, the nudges gave1 me good cause to remember them, and before it got dark I was nearly
driven wild by their attacks.
" Owing to the heavy thunder-clouds, it was so dark by a quarter to ten that I coald no longer make out
the nest ; so I left the shelter, and made the best of my way to where the men were wailing. As the country
Mas strange, I bad no lit I la difficulty to discover the road, nml, in the rnd, 1 bad to fire otr my gnu to draw their
attention. As we proceeded on our way homewards the storms, which had been round us all day, again drew
near, ami our track through the forest was lighted up by the Hashes of lightning which followed one another
" For a couple of miles our course lay through a wild and rugged glen, where the whole of the timber
had long been dead; by far the greater numlier of the trees were fallen and lay rotting on the grouod ;
while here and there a grim and weatherbeatcn stem remained, and gave a gh istly appearance to the scene,
its bare and twisted limbs standing out plainly defined by every Hash against tin- inky blackness of the
surrounding hills. On reaching the bothy shortly before eleven o'clock, as the atmosphere of the interior was
porfivlly stilling, we sal down to our supper outside the building. The flickering gloims i,r the sheet or
summer lightning almost continuously illumined the smallest objects, and, although the night was dark and
overcasl, gave sufficient light for all our requirements. Hardly a drop of rain bad fallen, and the air was
close and sultry, without a breath of wind. As the heaviest of the storm was some miles distant and appeared
to work round us instead of approach, we had ample leisure, after our hanger was appeased, to admire the
grandeur of the scone. At times a vivid Hash would strike the summit of one of Hie distant hills, and,
bursting into a thou-aud sparks of flame, would fall, like a cascade of fire, into the valley below. For a second
or two we might be enveloped in murky darkness, the hollow roll and echo of the distant thunder would die
away for a moment, the silence being only broken by the murmurs of the water in the adjacent burn, when
again a blaze would shoot across the heavens, and instantly mountainside and heathery brae, the dark pinelorcst
and glassy surface of the loch, would each in turn be lighted up tor a moment and again disappear from
view. After watching the progress of the storm for at least an hour, the horses were put to ; and, having
settled to meet the keepers the next night to try for the Kites at daybreak, we started for our twenty-mile drive
through the forest to the lodge where we were stopping. The fitful gleams of (he lightning as they Hashed
through the shadows thrown by the dark and gloomy lir trees were just sufficient to guide us on our way
and to enable the driver to avoid the hidden dangers in our course. As we emerged from the cover of the
woods and pulled up fur a few moments at a keeper's house, the first streaks of dawn were just struggling
through the storm-clouds, which were now rapidly disappearing. A few miles farther, when the light had