“When the Kite builds, look to lesser linen.”
“When the Kite builds, look to lesser linen.”
“When the Kite builds, look to lesser linen.”
“When the Kite builds, look to lesser linen.”
The presence of the Kite in London was useful in the old days, as its food consists by preference of offal, though it also devours Moles, Frogs, and unfledged nestlings, Rabbits, Snakes, and fish. The forked tail of this species—which serves as a rudder to the bird when flying, as it often does, in circles aloft—easily distinguishes it from all other British birds of prey. The length of the bird is about two feet, and the general colour of the upper plumage is rufous, most of the feathers being edged with that colour. Below, it is rufous-brown, with a narrow streak of blackish down the feathers; the quills are black; the tail rufous-brown, deeply forked, and crossed with seven or eight bars of black. The species is found all over Europe, but becomes gradually rarer in the eastern parts.
THE EUROPEAN HONEY-KITE (Pernis apivorus).
This bird is generally known as the Honey-Buzzard, though from the reticulations on the hinder aspect of the tarsus it has evidently nothing to do with those birds, even if its soft and kite-like plumage did not show its affinities to the Kites. Its nostril is also peculiar, and is closed in by a membrane, which doubtless forms a protection from the stings of insects when the bird is attacking a Bee’s or Wasp’s nest. Its habits have been well described by Brehm.[198]This bird is, perhaps, the most timid of all European birds of prey, but is remarkable for its good temper. Its movements are in the highest degree clumsy; its flight is bad, heavy, and slow, and is generally a short one, and the bird shows a great disinclination to rise to any considerable height in the air; in short, its whole bearing evinces the most lazy disposition. It will sit for hours on a stone boundary wall, on a solitary tree or sign-post, or on some other elevated spot, quite contented, watching its prey, which consists of the following:—Insects of all descriptions, Beetles, Caterpillars, Dragon-flies, Gadflies, Worms, Frogs, Snakes, Lizards, and destructive Rodents, which form its principal food; besides which it is very fond of hunting for the nests of the Humble-bee and Wasp, and of feeding on their larvæ. This bird also, unfortunately, destroys the young, and especially the eggs, of such of the smaller birds as it comes across while hunting for insects; this causes it to be looked upon as a disagreeable and hateful enemy by all birds. Crows and Rooks mob the Honey-Buzzard with almost the same eagerness as they chase the Eagle-Owl, and all small birds make a great noise at its appearance. In the summer it also feeds on buds, blossoms, bilberries, other wood-berries, and even leaves. This habit distinguishes it from all other German birds of prey.
COMMON KITE.
COMMON KITE.
“The Honey-Buzzard reaches us somewhat late in the year, and commences to build its nest when the other Raptors have hatched their broods. The nest is very flat, and is placed on the highest of our forest trees; it is principally constructed of green twigs, mixed with dead sticks, and is lined with moss, hair, and feathers. It generally contains three eggs, of a rustyyellow ground, very thickly blotched and spotted with dark reddish-brown. They are somewhat small and rather long in shape. Of these rarely more than two are hatched. The young ones are at first fed with Caterpillars, Flies, Beetles, Worms, &c., which the old birds collect in their crops, and then throw up; later they are treated to pieces of Wasps’ nests filled with larvæ, Frogs, Mice, young birds, &c. The parent birds still continue to feed their young long after the latter have left the nest. Both young and old birds remain in company almost till the moulting season comes round, when they migrate more to the southward.”
The Honey-Kite inhabits, during the summer, the greater part of Europe, and flies away to Africa to pass the winter. In India it is represented by a species which goes through similar changes of plumage, but may always be recognised by its long crest. The phases through which the Honey-Kite passes are most remarkable, the bird being sometimes nearly all white, at other times all black; and this plumage seems to occur at any age, sometimes in youth, sometimes in old age; and hence this is called a melanism (μέλας, black). Many birds of prey are subject to this melanism, but none more so than the Honey-Buzzards, and their representatives in America, the Tooth-billed Kites (Leptodon).
ANDERSSON’S PERN (Machærhamphus[199]Anderssoni).
This remarkable bird bears the name of one of the most intrepid, as well as one of the most unassuming, of African travellers, the late Charles John Andersson, who discovered it during his residence in Damara Land in South-western Africa. So rare is it, and so difficult to obtain, that he only managed to procure two specimens in the space of ten years, though constantly on the look-out for the bird. He writes concerning it:—“On the 10th of March, 1865, I obtained one specimen, a female, of this singular bird at Objimbinque, Damara Land. It was shot by my servant, who observed another, probably the male. I imagine that I have myself observed it once or twice in the neighbourhood of Objimbinque just before dusk. When brought to me I instinctively suspected the bird to be a feeder at dusk or at night, and called out, ‘Why, that fellow is likely to feed on Bats!’ And truly enough so it turned out; for on dissection an undigested Bat was found in the stomach; and in another specimen, subsequently killed by Axel, there were several Bats in the stomach.”[200]It is probably owing to this habit of feeding in the evening that the bird is so difficult to procure, as is the case with many of the Goat-suckers, which are also night-feeding birds. Since Mr. Andersson’s death, two or three specimens of his Pern have been sent from Madagascar, but in the intervening portions of the African continent it is as yet unknown.
The colouring of this species is plain, being of a chocolate-brown colour, with a long crest springing from the back of the head; above the eye is a white spot, and another below the eye; the throat and chest are white, with a streak of dark brown down the centre of the throat; the quills and tail are banded the bars showing paler below. The length of the bird is about seventeen inches.
Only one other species of the genusMachærhamphusis known, and this is Westermann’s Pern (M. alcinus), which is an inhabitant of Malacca, where it is almost as rare as Andersson’s Pern is in Africa. It has lately been sent from South-eastern New Guinea, and may ultimately be found to inhabit some of the Moluccas.