BREEDING OF THE KITE AND BUZZARD IN ESSEX. 19
purchased by some one else. Probably I should have made a
greater effort to attend the sale but for a lurking suspicion that the
data given with the eggs were unreliable and probably incorrect.
I could not help asking myself whether it was possible that such
large and interesting raptorial birds as the kite and buzzard
were still breeding near Maldon—scarcely forty miles from
London—so recently as half a century ago, or even less. The
thing seemed, I admit, almost incredible. Reference to my
work on The Birds of Essex (1890) will show (pp. 164 and 169)
that, though both species bred commonly in the county at one
time, they had almost ceased to do so and had become
practically extinct, except in a few localities, by the end of the
first quarter of last century. There are, however, as will be
seen, several records of their breeding in the county at
a slightly later date, as will be noted hereafter.
Soon after the sale, I heard that the eggs had been purchased
by one of our best-known and most active English ornithologists—
Mr. O. V. Aplin, F.L.S., of Stonehill House, Bloxham, Oxford-
shire, author of The Birds of Oxfordshire (1889). The price at
which he secured them shows, I think, that many other
ornithologists shared my doubt as to their authenticity ; for
there can be no question that eggs of the kind, if known to be
authenticated beyond any doubt, would have fetched ten or
twelve times what Mr. Aplin gave for them.
However this may be, I heard from Mr. Aplin, soon after he
had got his purchase home, that the eggs themselves afforded
no reason for doubting that they were genuine Essex specimens.
Of the two Kite's eggs, Mr. Aplin wrote me that each had
stuck on to it a small paper label bearing the printed word
"Kite," and that on each is written in ink, "Nr. Maldon, Essex,
1854," both ink and handwriting having the appearance of being
old. Continuing, Mr. Aplin says :—
From their appearance, I should not have thought they were from the same
nest, as one is larger than the other ; but it does not do to judge from appearances
of any hawks' eggs in this respect. One [the smaller] is marked at the small
end with very short scratchy markings, very characteristic of Kite's, and some
small marks all over, including one good spot. The other is slightly marked
with streaky marks. I have no doubt they are both Kite's eggs.
On each egg, the figure "5" has been altered from some
other figure, apparently a "6." The handwriting is identical on
both eggs.