formed a feature of many a rural landscape in England, as they had done in the days of Cowper. But an evil time soon came upon the species. It must have been always hated by the henwife, but the resources of civilization in the shape of the gun and the gin were denied to her. They were, however, employed with fatal zeal by the gamekeeper; for the Kite, which had long afforded the supremest sport to the falconer, was now left friendless, and in a very few years it seems to have been exterminated throughout the greater part of England, certain woods in Huntingdonshire and Lincolnshire and in the Western Midlands, as well as Wales, excepted. In these latter a small remnant still exists; but the well-wishers of this beautiful species are naturally chary of giving information that might lead to its further persecution. In Scotland there is no reason to suppose that its numbers suffered much diminution until about 1835 or even later, when the systematic destruction of “vermin” on so many moors was begun. In that kingdom, however, it is now as much restricted to certain districts as in England or Wales, and those districts it would be most inexpedient to indicate.

The Kite is, according to its sex, from 25 to 27 inches in length, about one half of which is made up by its deeply-forked tail, capable of great expansion, and therefore a powerful rudder, enabling the bird while soaring on its wide wings, more than 5 feet in extent, to direct its circling course with scarcely a movement that is apparent to the spectator below. Its general colour is pale reddish-brown or cinnamon, the head being greyish-white, but almost each feather has the shaft dark. The tail-feathers are broad, of a light red, barred with deep brown, and furnish the salmon-fisher with one of the choicest materials of his “flies.” The nest, nearly always built in the crotch of a large tree, is formed of sticks intermixed with many strange substances collected as chance may offer, but among them rags seem always to have a place. The eggs, three or four in number, are of a dull white, spotted and blotched with several shades of brown, and often lilac. It is especially mentioned by old authors that in Great Britain the Kite was resident throughout the year; whereas on the Continent it is one of the most regular and marked migrants, stretching its wings towards the south in autumn, wintering in Africa, and returning in spring to the land of its birth.

There is a second European species, not distantly related, the Milvus migrans or Μ. ater of most authors, smaller in size, with a general dull blackish-brown plumage and a less forked tail. In some districts this is much commoner than the red Kite, and on one occasion it has appeared in England. Its habits are very like those of the species already described, but it seems to be more addicted to fishing. Nearly allied to this Black Kite are the Μ. aegyptius of Africa, the Μ. govinda (the Pariah Kite of India), the Μ. melanοtis of Eastern Asia, and the Μ. affinis and Μ. isurus ; the last is by some authors removed to another genus or sub-genus as Lophoictiηia, and is peculiar to Australia, while Μ. affi,nis also occurs in Ceylon, Burmah, and some of the Malay countries as well. All these may be considered true Kites, while those next to be mentioned are more aberrant forms. First there is Elanus, the type of which is E. caeruleus, a beautiful little bird, the Blackwinged Kite of English authors, that comes to the south of Europe from Africa, and has several congeners— E. axillaris and E. scriptus of Australia being most worthy of notice. An extreme development of this form is found in the African Nauclerus rwcourU, as well as in Elanοides furcatus, the Swallow-tailed Kite, a widely-ranging bird in America, and remarkable for its length of wing and tail, which gives it a marvellous power of flight, and serves to explain the unquestionable fact of its having twice appeared in Great Britain. To Elanus also Ictinia, another American form, is allied, though perhaps more remotely, and it is represented by I. mississippiensis, the Mississippi Kite, which is by some considered to be but the northern race of the Neotropical I. plumbea. Gampsonyx, Rostrhamus, and Cymindis, all belonging to the Neotropical Region, complete the series of forms that seem to compose the subfamily Milvinae, though there may be doubt about the last, and some systematists would thereto add the Perns or Honey-Buzzards, Perninae. (a. n.)