14 APRIL 1950, Page 20

Kites

A hope was expressed the other day that the kite, successfully protected in West Wales, would soon spread abroad. I have just heard of this now rare and splendid hawk being seen on the Somerset-Devon border. Its flight is sharply contrasted with that of the buzzard, which is now a really common bird in the South West. The successful protection of the kites in the West is a parallel with- the even more successful

protection of :the avocet in the East. W. BEACH THOMAS.