Elizabethan Birds Kites always nested in Wales, a great land
for the hawks. Did not Elizabethan hawkers stipulate for peregrines from St. David's Head? The R.S.P.B. has an interesting note on the kite's history : " The bird was one of the common sights of the Metropolis " as the Buzzard of Washington and some great hawk, of whose identity I am not sure, of Cologne, and the kite today of Palma in Majorca (where its splendid flight was a constant pleasure to the holidaymaker). And again, " Shakespeare in his Winter's Tale (Act IV, Scene 2) gives us a word of warning about it : ' When the Kite builds, look to lesser linen ' ; for the kite had a playful way of swoop- ing down on the Londoner's linen spread out in the hedges to dry and of carrying oft unconsidered trifles of millinery to weave into its nest." The swallow-like tail is the surest point of identification.
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