BREEDING OF THE KITE AND BUZZARD IN ESSEX. 23
the kite did not linger on in some localities for another ten years—either quite
overlooked or known only to some parties who were never questioned . . .
In the Fifties and Sixties, very tew people took any intelligent interest in such
things. It is difficult for an ornithologist to realize how closely a man can keep
his eyes shut.
One may admit to the full the force of this, whilst still recog-
nizing that it applies more pointedly to some other counties than
to a highly-cultivated county lying adjacent to the Metropolis,
like Essex.
On the whole, I think that, however unexpected the
discovery that the Kite and Buzzard still bred in Essex as late
as the Fifties and Sixties of last century may be, there is no
inherent improbability in their having done so, and that we are
justified in accepting the eggs in question as authentic Essex
specimens, taken at the places and in the years inscribed upon
them. As such, we may regard them as of very exceptional—
indeed, unique—interest in their way.
Perhaps the pleasantest thing in connection with the matter
yet remains to be told. On the 9th January last, Mr. Aplin
wrote me as follows :—
At the time I bought the old eggs of the kite and buzzard, I was so pleased
at getting them that I took no notice of your suggested wish to get them back
into Essex. But, all the same, I know that I ought not to keep the eggs under
the circumstances; and, when I think what my feelings would be if you had got
some Oxfordshire buzzards' or kites' eggs and would not let me have them, I
feel that I ought to begin the New Year well by saying that, if you still wish to
have the eggs, you can do so.
Such an offer was too good to be declined. I accepted it at
once and with the greatest possible pleasure, Mr. Aplin allowing
me to purchase the eggs from him at the price at which he
bought them. That he should have made so liberal an offer,
quite unsolicited, shows in the best possible light both his good
feeling and his interest in the study of ornithology.
As a result, I am now in a position to present these excep-
tionally-interesting eggs to the Essex Field Club, which I do in
the hope that they will for long be preserved (as they ought to
be) in the Essex Museum of Natural History. In presenting
them, however, I desire to remind the Club that, for its
possession of them, it is, in reality, more indebted to Mr. Aplin
than to myself.