Chapter XXI: Part 21

At the beginning of the 19th century he had published a volume of erotics which made him famous, and his reputation was still further increased by his _Regék_ or Tales. During the troublous times of 1809, when the gentry of Zala county founded a confederation, the palatine appointed Kisfaludy one of his adjutants. Subsequently, by command, he wrote an account of the movement for presentation to King Francis, which was committed to the secret archives, and Kisfaludy was forbidden to communicate its contents. In 1820 the Marczebánya Institute crowned his _Tales_ and the palatine presented him with a prize of 400 florins in the hall of the Pest county council. In 1822 he started the _Aurora_ with his younger brother Károly (see above). When the academy was founded in 1830 Kisfaludy was the first county member elected to it. In 1835 he resigned because he was obliged to share the honour of winning the academy's grand prize with Vörösmarty. After the death of his first wife (1832) he married a second time, but by neither of his wives had he any child. The remainder of his days were spent in his Tusculum among the vineyards of Sümeg and Somla. He died on the 28th of October 1844. Alexander Kisfaludy stands alone among the rising literary schools of his day. He was not even influenced by his friend the great critic Kazinczy, who gave the tone to the young classical writers of his day. Kisfaludy's art was self-taught, solitary and absolutely independent. If he imitated any one it was Petrarch; indeed his famous _Himfy szerelmei_ ("The Loves of Himfy"), as his collected sonnets are called, have won for him the title of "The Hungarian Petrarch." But the passion of Kisfaludy is far more sincere and real than ever Petrarch's was, and he completely Magyarized everything he borrowed. After finishing the sonnets Kisfaludy devoted himself to more objective writing, as in the incomparable _Regék_, which reproduce the scenery and the history of the delightful counties which surround Lake Balaton. He also contributed numerous tales and other pieces to _Aurora_. Far less successful were his plays, of which _Hunyádi János_ (1816), by far the longest drama in the Hungarian language, need alone be mentioned.

The best critical edition of Sándor Kisfaludy's works is the fourth
complete edition, by David Angyal, in eight volumes (Budapest, 1893).
See Tamás Szana, _The two Kisfaludys_ (Hung.) (Budapest, 1876); Imre
Sándor, _The Influence of the Italian on the Hungarian Literature_
(Hung.) (Budapest, 1878); Kálmán Sümegi, _Kisfaludy and his Tales_
(Hung.) (Budapest, 1877). (R. N. B.)

KISH, or KAIS (the first form is Persian and the second Arabic), an island in the Persian Gulf. It is mentioned in the 12th century as being the residence of an Arab pirate from Oman, who exacted a tribute from the pearl fisheries of the gulf and had the title of "King of the Sea," and it rose to importance in the 13th century with the fall of Siraf as a transit station of the trade between India and the West. In the 14th century it was supplanted by Hormuz and lapsed into its former insignificance. The island is nearly 10 m. long and 5 m. broad, and contains a number of small villages, the largest, Mashi, with about 100 houses, being situated on its north-eastern corner in 26° 34´ N. and 54° 2´ E. The highest part of the island has an elevation of 120 ft. The inhabitants are Arabs, and nearly all pearl fishers, possessing many boats, which they take to the pearl banks on the Arabian coast. The water supply is scanty and there is little vegetation, but sufficient for sustaining some flocks of sheep and goats and some cattle. Near the centre of the north coast are the ruins of the old city, now known as Harira, with remains of a mosque, with octagonal columns, masonry, water-cisterns (two 150 ft. long, 40 ft. broad, 24 ft. deep) and a fine underground canal, or aqueduct, half a mile long and cut in the solid rock 20 ft. below the surface. Fragments of glazed tiles and brown and blue pottery, of thin white and blue Chinese porcelain, of green céladon (some with white scroll-work or figures in relief), glass beads, bangles, &c., are abundant. Kish is the Kataia of Arrian; Chisi and Quis of Marco Polo; Quixi, Queis, Caez, Cais, &c., of Portuguese writers; and Khenn, or Kenn, of English.

KISHANGARH, a native state of India, in the Rajputana agency. Area, 858 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 90,970, showing a decrease of 27% in the decade, due to the famine of 1899-1900; estimated revenue, £34,000; there is no tribute. The state was founded in the reign of the emperor Akbar, by a younger son of the raja of Jodhpur. In 1818 Kishangarh first came into direct relations with the British government, by entering into a treaty, together with the other Rajput states, for the suppression of the Pindari marauders by whom the country was at that time overrun. The chief, whose title is maharaja, is a Rajput of the Rathor clan. Maharaja Madan Singh ascended the throne in 1900 at the age of sixteen, and attended the Delhi Durbar of 1903 as a cadet in the Imperial Cadet Corps. The administration, under the _diwan_, is highly spoken of. Irrigation from tanks and wells has been extended; factories for ginning and pressing cotton have been started; and the social reform movement, for discouraging excessive expenditure on marriages, has been very successful. The state is traversed by the Rajputana railway. The town of KISHANGARH is 18 m. N.W. of Ajmere by rail. Pop. (1901), 12,663. It is the residence of many Jain merchants.

KISHINEV (_Kishlanow_ of the Moldavians), a town of south-west Russia, capital of the government of Bessarabia, situated on the right bank of the Byk, a tributary of the Dniester, and on the railway between Odessa and Jassy in Rumania, 120 m. W.N.W. from the former. At the beginning of the 19th century it was but a poor village, and in 1812 when it was acquired by Russia from Moldavia it had only 7000 inhabitants; twenty years later its population numbered 35,000, while in 1862 it had with its suburbs 92,000 inhabitants, and in 1900 125,787, composed of the most varied nationalities--Moldavians, Walachians, Russians, Jews (43%), Bulgarians, Tatars, Germans and Gypsies. A massacre (_pogrom_) of the Jews was perpetrated here in 1903. The town consists of two parts--the old or lower town, on the banks of the Byk, and the new or upper town, situated on high crags, 450 to 500 ft. above the river. The wide suburbs are remarkable for their gardens, which produce great quantities of fruits (especially plums, which are dried and exported), tobacco, mulberry leaves for silkworms, and wine. The buildings of the town are sombre, shabby and low, but built of stone; and the streets, though wide and shaded by acacias, are mostly unpaved. Kishinev is the seat of the archbishop of Bessarabia, and has a cathedral, an ecclesiastical seminary with 800 students, a college, and a gardening school, a museum, a public library, a botanic garden, and a sanatorium with sulphur springs. The town is adorned with statues of Tsar Alexander II. (1886) and the poet Pushkin (1885). There are tallow-melting houses, steam flour-mills, candle and soap works, distilleries and tobacco factories. The trade is very active and increasing, Kishinev being a centre for the Bessarabian trade in grain, wine, tobacco, tallow, wool and skins, exported to Austria and to Odessa. The town played an important part in the war between Russia and Turkey in 1877-78, as the chief centre of the Russian invasion.

KISHM (also Arab. _Jazirat ut-tawilah_, Pers. _Jazarih i daraz_, i.e. Long Island), an island at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, separated from the Persian mainland by the Khor-i-Jafari, a strait which at its narrowest point is less than 2 m. broad. On British Admiralty charts it figures as "Clarence Strait," the name given to it by British surveyors in 1828 in honour of the duke of Clarence (William IV.). The island is 70 m. long, its main axis running E.N.E. by W.S.W. Its greatest breadth is 22 m. and the mean breadth about 7 m. A range of hills from 300 to 600 ft. high, with strongly marked escarpments, runs nearly parallel to the southern coast; they are largely composed, like those of Hormuz and the neighbouring mainland, of rock salt, which is regularly quarried in several places, principally at Nimakdan (i.e. salt-cellar) and Salakh on the south coast, and forms one of the chief products of the island, finding its way to Muscat, India and Zanzibar. In the centre of the island some hills, consisting of sandstone and marl, rise to an elevation of 1300 ft. In its general aspect the island is parched and barren-looking, like the south of Persia, but it contains fertile portions, which produce grain, dates, grapes, melons, &c. Traces of naphtha were observed near Salakh, but extensive boring operations in 1892 did not lead to any result. The town of Kishm (pop. 5000) is on the eastern extremity of the island. The famous navigator, William Baffin, was killed here in January 1622 by a shot from the Portuguese castle close by, which a British force was then besieging. Lafit (Laft, Leit), the next place in importance (reduced by a British fleet in 1809), is situated about midway on the northern coast in the most fertile part of the island. There are also many flourishing villages. At Basidu or Bassadore (correct name Baba Sa'idu), on the western extremity of the island, the British government maintained until 1879 a sanatorium for the crews of their gunboats in the gulf, with barracks for a company of sepoys belonging to the marine battalion at Bombay, workshops, hospital, &c. The village is still British property, but its occupants are reduced to a couple of men in charge of a coal depot, a provision store and about 90 villagers. In December 1896 a terrible earthquake destroyed about four-fifths of the houses on the island and over 1000 persons lost their lives. The total population is generally estimated at about 15,000 to 20,000, but the German Admiralty's _Segelhandbuch für den Persischen Golf_ for 1907 has 40,000.

Kishm is the ancient _Oaracta_, or _Uorochta_, a name said to have survived until recently in a village called Brokt, or Brokht. It was also called the island of the Beni Kavan, from an Arab tribe of that name which came from Oman. (A. H.-S.)

KISKUNFÉLEGYHÁZA, a town of Hungary, in the county of Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun, 80 m. S.S.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900), 33,242. Among the principal buildings are a fine town hall, a Roman Catholic gymnasium and a modern large parish church. The surrounding country is covered with vineyards, fruit gardens, and tobacco and corn fields. The town itself, which is an important railway junction, is chiefly noted for its great cattle-market. Numerous Roman urns and other ancient relics have been dug up in the vicinity. In the 17th century the town was completely destroyed by the Turks, and it was not recolonized and rebuilt till 1743.

KISLOVODSK, a town and health-resort of Russian Caucasia, in the province of Terek, situated at an altitude of 2690 ft., in a deep caldron-shaped valley on the N. side of the Caucasus, 40 m. by rail S.W. of Pyatigorsk. Pop. (1897), 4078. The limestone hills which surround the town rise by successive steps or terraces, and contain numerous caves. The mineral waters are strongly impregnated with carbonic acid gas and have a temperature of 51° F. The principal spring is known as Narsan, and its water is called by the Circassians the "drink of heroes."

KISMET, fate, destiny, a term used by Mahommedans to express all the incidents and details of man's lot in life. The word is the Turkish form of the Arabic _gismat_, from _gasama_, to divide.

KISS, the act of pressing or touching with the lips, cheek, hand or lips of another, as a sign or expression of love, affection, reverence or greeting. Skeat (_Etym. Dict._, 1898) connects the Teut. base _kussa_ with Lat. _gustus_, taste, and with Goth. _kustus_, test, from _kinsan_, to choose, and takes "kiss" as ultimately a doublet of "choice."

For the liturgical _osculum pacis_ or "kiss of peace," see PAX. See
further C. Nyrop, _The Kiss and its History_, trans. by W. F. Harvey
(1902); J. J. Claudius, _Dissertatio de salulationibus veterum_
(Utrecht, 1702); and "_Baisers d'étiquette_" (1689) in _Archives
curieuses de l'histoire de France_ (1834-1890, series ii. tom. 12).

KISSAR, or GYTARAH BARBARYEH, the ancient Nubian lyre, still in use in Egypt and Abyssinia. It consists of a body having instead of the traditional tortoiseshell back a shallow, round bowl of wood, covered with a sound-board of sheepskin, in which are three small round sound-holes. The arms, set through the sound-board at points distant about the third of the diameter from the circumference, have the familiar fan shape. Five gut strings, knotted round the bar and raised from the sound-board by means of a bridge tailpiece similar to that in use on the modern guitar, are plucked by means of a plectrum by the right hand for the melody, while the left hand sometimes twangs some of the strings as a soft drone accompaniment.

KISSINGEN, a town and watering-place of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, delightfully situated in a broad valley surrounded by high and well-wooded hills, on the Franconian Saale, 656 ft. above sea-level, 62 m. E. of Frankfort-on-Main, and 43 N.E. of Würzburg by rail. Pop. (1900), 4757. Its streets are regular and its houses attractive. It has an Evangelical, an English, a Russian and three Roman Catholic churches, a theatre, and various benevolent institutions, besides all the usual buildings for the lodging, cure and amusement of the numerous visitors who are attracted to this, the most popular watering-place in Bavaria. In the Kurgarten, a tree-shaded expanse between the Kurhaus and the handsome colonnaded Konversations-Saal, are the three principal springs, the Rákóczy, the Pandur and the Maxbrunnen, of which the first two, strongly impregnated with iron and salt, have a temperature of 51.26° F.; the last (50.72°) is like Selters or Seltzer water. At short distances from the town are the intermittent artesian spring Solensprudel, the Schönbornsprudel and the Theresienquelle; and in the same valley as Kissingen are the minor spas of Bocklet and Brückenau. The waters of Kissingen are prescribed for both internal and external use in a great variety of diseases. They are all highly charged with salt, and productive government salt-works were at one time stationed near Kissingen. The number of persons who visit the place amounts to about 20,000 a year. The manufactures of the town, chiefly carriages and furniture, are unimportant; there is also a trade in fruit and wine.

The salt springs were known in the 9th century, and their medicinal properties were recognized in the 16th, but it was only during the 19th century that Kissingen became a popular resort. The town belonged to the counts of Henneberg until 1394, when it was sold to the bishop of Würzburg. With this bishopric it passed later to Bavaria. On the 10th of July 1866 the Prussians defeated the Bavarians with great slaughter near Kissingen. On the 13th of July 1874 the town was the scene of the attempt of the fanatic Kullmann to assassinate Prince Bismarck, to whom a statue has been erected. There are also monuments to Kings Louis I. and Maximilian I. of Bavaria.

See Balling, _Die Heilquellen und Bäder zu Kissingen_ (Kissingen,
1886); A. Sotier, _Bad Kissingen_ (Leipzig, 1883); Werner, _Bad
Kissingen als Kurort_ (Berlin, 1904); Leusser, _Kissingen für
Herzkranke_ (Würzburg, 1902); Diruf, _Kissingen und seine Heilquellen_
(Würzburg, 1892); and Roth, _Bad Kissingen_ (Würzburg, 1901).

KISTNA, or KRISHNA, a large river of southern India. It rises near the Bombay sanatorium of Mahabaleshwar in the Western Ghats, only about 40 m. from the Arabian Sea, and, as it discharges into the Bay of Bengal, it thus flows across almost the entire peninsula from west to east. It has an estimated basin area of 97,000 sq. m., and its length is 800 m. Its source is held sacred, and is frequented by pilgrims in large numbers. From Mahabaleshwar the Kistna runs southward in a rapid course into the nizam's dominions, then turns to the east, and ultimately falls into the sea by two principal mouths, carrying with it the waters of the Bhima from the north and the Tungabadhra from the south-west. Along this part of the coast runs an extensive strip of land which has been entirely formed by the detritus washed down by the Kistna and Godavari. The river channel is throughout too rocky and the stream too rapid to allow navigation even by small native craft. In utility for irrigation the Kistna is also inferior to its two sister streams, the Godavari and Cauvery. By far the greatest of its irrigation works is the Bezwada anicut, begun by Sir Arthur Cotton in 1852. Bezwada is a small town at the entrance of the gorge by which the Kistna bursts through the Eastern Ghats and immediately spreads over the alluvial plain. The channel there is 1300 yds. wide. During the dry season the depth of water is barely 6 ft., but sometimes it rises to as much as 36 ft., the maximum flood discharge being calculated at 1,188,000 cub. ft. per second. Of the two main canals connected with the dam, that on the left bank breaks into two branches, the one running 39 m. to Ellore, the other 49 m. to Masulipatam. The canal on the right bank proceeds nearly parallel to the river, and also sends off two principal branches, to Nizampatam and Comamur. The total length of the main channels is 372 m. and the total area irrigated in 1903-1904 was about 700,000 acres.

KISTNA (or KRISHNA), a district of British India, in the N.E. of the Madras Presidency. Masulipatam is the district headquarters. Area, 8490 sq. m. The district is generally a flat country, but the interior is broken by a few low hills, the highest being 1857 ft. above sea-level. The principal rivers are the Kistna, which cuts the district into two portions, and the Munyeru, Paleru and Naguleru (tributaries of the Gundlakamma and the Kistna); the last only is navigable. The Kolar lake, which covers an area of 21 by 14 m., and the Romparu swamp are natural receptacles for the drainage on the north and south sides of the Kistna respectively.

In 1901 the population was 2,154,803, showing an increase of 16% in the decade. Subsequently the area of the district was reduced by the formation of the new district of Guntur (q.v.), though Kistna received an accretion of territory from Godavari district. The population in 1901 on the area as reconstituted (5899 sq. m.) was 1,744,138. The Kistna delta system of irrigation canals, which are available also for navigation, connect with the Godavari system. The principal crops are rice, millets, pulse, oil-seeds, cotton, indigo, tobacco and a little sugar-cane. There are several factories for ginning and pressing cotton. The cigars known in England as Lunkas are partly made from tobacco grown on _lankas_ or islands in the Kistna. The manufacture of chintzes at Masulipatam is a decaying industry, but cotton is woven everywhere for domestic use. Salt is evaporated, under government supervision, along the coast. Bezwada, at the head of the delta, is a place of growing importance, as the central junction of the East Coast railway system, which crosses the inland portion of the district in three directions. Some seaborne trade, chiefly coasting, is carried on at the open roadsteads of Masulipatam and Nizampatam, both in the delta. The Church Missionary Society supports a college at Masulipatam.

The early history of Kistna is inseparable from that of the northern Circars. Dharanikota and the adjacent town of Amravati were the seats of early Hindu and Buddhist governments; and the more modern Rajahmundry owed its importance to later dynasties. The Chalukyas here gave place to the Cholas, who in turn were ousted by the Reddi kings, who flourished during the 14th century, and built the forts of Bellamkonda, Kondavi and Kondapalli in the north of the district, while the Gajapati dynasty of Orissa ruled in the north. Afterwards the entire district passed to the Kutb Shahis of Golconda, until annexed to the Mogul empire by Aurangzeb in 1687. Meantime the English had in 1611 established a small factory at Masulipatam, where they traded with varying fortune from 1759, when, Masulipatam being captured from the French by Colonel Forde, with a force sent by Lord Clive from Calcutta, the power of the English in the greater part of the district was complete.

KIT (1) (probably an adaptation of the Middle Dutch _kitie_, a wooden tub, usually with a lid and handles; in modern Dutch _kit_ means a tankard), a tub, basket or pail used for holding milk, butter, eggs, fish and other goods; also applied to similar receptacles for various domestic purposes, or for holding a workman's tools, &c. By transference "kit" came to mean the tools themselves, but more commonly personal effects such as clothing, especially that of a soldier or sailor, the word including the knapsack or other receptacle in which the effects are packed. (2) The name (perhaps a corruption of "cittern" Gr. [Greek: kithara]) of a small violin, about 16 in. long, and played with a bow of nearly the same length, much used at one time by dancing-masters. The French name is _pochette_, the instrument being small enough to go into the pocket.

KITAZATO, SHIBASABURO (1856- ), Japanese doctor of medicine, was born at Kumamoto in 1856 and studied in Germany under Koch from 1885 to 1891. He became one of the foremost bacteriologists of the world, and enjoyed the credit of having discovered the bacilli of tetanus, diphtheria and plague, the last in conjunction with Dr Aoyama, who accompanied him to Hong-Kong in 1894 during an epidemic at that place.

KIT-CAT CLUB, a club of Whig wits, painters, politicians and men of letters, founded in London about 1703. The name was derived from that of Christopher Cat, the keeper of the pie-house in which the club met in Shire Lane, near Temple Bar. The meetings were afterwards held at the Fountain tavern in the Strand, and latterly in a room specially built for the purpose at Barn Elms, the residence of the secretary, Jacob Tonson, the publisher. In summer the club met at the Upper Flask, Hampstead Heath. The club originally consisted of thirty-nine, afterwards of forty-eight members, and included among others the duke of Marlborough, Lords Halifax and Somers, Sir Robert Walpole, Vanbrugh, Congreve, Steele and Addison. The portraits of many of the members were painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, himself a member, of a uniform size suited to the height of the Barn Elms room in which the club dined. The canvas, 36 × 28 in., admitted of less than a half-length portrait but was sufficiently long to include a hand, and this is known as the kit-cat size. The club was dissolved about 1720.

KITCHEN (O.E. _cycene_; this and other cognate forms, such as Dutch _keuken_, Ger. _Küche_, Dan. _kökken_, Fr. _cuisine_, are formed from the Low Lat. _cucina_, Lat. _coquina_, _coquere_, to cook), the room or place in a house set apart for cooking, in which the culinary and other domestic utensils are kept. The range or cooking-stove fitted with boiler for hot water, oven and other appliances, is often known as a "kitchener" (see COOKERY and HEATING). Archaeologists have used the term "kitchen-midden," i.e. kitchen rubbish-heap (Danish _kökken-mödding_) for the rubbish heaps of prehistoric man, containing bones, remains of edible shell-fish, implements, &c. (see SHELL-HEAPS). "Midden," in Middle English _mydding_, is a Scandinavian word, from _myg_, muck, filth, and _dyng_, heap; the latter word gives the English "dung."

KITCHENER, HORATIO HERBERT KITCHENER, VISCOUNT (1850- ), British field marshal, was the son of Lieut.-Colonel H. H. Kitchener and was born at Bally Longford, Co. Kerry, on the 24th of June 1850. He entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1868, and was commissioned second lieutenant, Royal Engineers, in 1871. As a subaltern he was employed in survey work in Cyprus and Palestine, and on promotion to captain in 1883 was attached to the Egyptian army, then in course of re-organization under British officers. In the following year he served on the staff of the British expeditionary force on the Nile, and was promoted successively major and lieutenant-colonel by brevet for his services. From 1886 to 1888 he was commandant at Suakin, commanding and receiving a severe wound in the action of Handub in 1888. In 1888 he commanded a brigade in the actions of Gamaizieh and Toski. From 1889 to 1892 he served as adjutant-general of the army. He had become brevet-colonel in the British army in 1888, and he received the C.B. in 1889 after the action of Toski. In 1892 Colonel Kitchener succeeded Sir Francis (Lord) Grenfell as sirdar of the Egyptian army, and three years later, when he had completed his predecessor's work of re-organizing the forces of the khedive, he began the formation of an expeditionary force on the vexed military frontier of Wady Halfa. The advance into the Sudan (see EGYPT, _Military Operations_) was prepared by thorough administrative work on his part which gained universal admiration. In 1896 Kitchener won the action of Ferket (June 7) and advanced the frontier and the railway to Dongola. In 1897 Sir Archibald Hunter's victory of Abu Hamed (Aug. 7) carried the Egyptian flag one stage farther, and in 1898 the resolve to destroy the Mahdi's power was openly indicated by the despatch of a British force to co-operate with the Egyptians. The sirdar, who in 1896 became a British major-general and received the K.C.B., commanded the united force, which stormed the Mahdist zareba on the river Atbara on the 8th of April, and, the outposts being soon afterwards advanced to Metemmeh and Shendy, the British force was augmented to the strength of a division for the final advance on Khartum. Kitchener's work was crowned and the power of the Mahdists utterly destroyed by the victory of Omdurman (Sept. 2), for which he was raised to the peerage as Baron Kitchener of Khartoum, received the G.C.B., the thanks of parliament and a grant of £30,000. Little more than a year afterwards, while still sirdar of the Egyptian army, he was promoted lieutenant-general and appointed chief-of-staff to Lord Roberts in the South African War (see TRANSVAAL, _History_). In this capacity he served in the campaign of Paardeberg, the advance on Bloemfontein and the subsequent northward advance to Pretoria, and on Lord Roberts' return to England in November 1900 succeeded him as commander-in-chief, receiving at the same time the local rank of general. In June 1902 the long and harassing war came to its close, and Kitchener was rewarded by advancement to the dignity of viscount, promotion to the substantive rank of general "for distinguished service," the thanks of parliament and a grant of £50,000. He was also included in the Order of Merit.

Immediately after the peace he went to India as commander-in-chief in the East Indies, and in this position, which he held for seven years, he carried out not only many far-reaching administrative reforms but a complete re-organization and strategical redistribution of the British and native forces. On leaving India in 1909 he was promoted field marshal, and succeeded the duke of Connaught as commander-in-chief and high commissioner in the Mediterranean. This post, not of great importance in itself, was regarded as a virtual command of the colonial as distinct from the home and the Indian forces, and on his appointment Lord Kitchener (after a visit to Japan) undertook a tour of inspection of the forces of the empire, and went to Australia and New Zealand in order to assist in drawing up local schemes of defence. In this mission he was highly successful, and earned golden opinions. But soon after his return to England in April 1910 he declined to take up his Mediterranean appointment, owing to his dislike of its inadequate scope, and he was succeeded in June by Sir Ian Hamilton.

KITE,[1] the _Falco milvus_ of Linnaeus and _Milvus ictinus_ of modern ornithologists, once probably the most familiar bird of prey in Great Britain, and now one of the rarest. Three or four hundred years ago foreigners were struck with its abundance in the streets of London. It was doubtless the scavenger in ordinary of that and other large towns (as kindred species now are in Eastern lands), except where its place was taken by the raven; for Sir Thomas Browne (c. 1662) wrote of the latter at Norwich--"in good plentie about the citty which makes so few kites to be seen hereabout." John Wolley has well remarked of the modern Londoners that few "who see the paper toys hovering over the parks in fine days of summer, have any idea that the bird from which they derive their name used to float all day in hot weather high over the heads of their ancestors." Even at the beginning of the 19th century the kite formed a feature of many a rural landscape in England, as they had done in the days when the poet Cowper wrote of them. "But an evil time soon came upon the species. It must have been always hated by the henwife, but the resources of civilization in the shape of the gun and the gin were denied to her. They were, however, employed with fatal zeal by the gamekeeper; for the kite, which had long afforded the supremest sport to the falconer, was now left friendless,"[2] and in a very few years it seems to have been exterminated throughout the greater part of England, certain woods in the Western Midlands, as well as Wales, excepted. In these latter a small remnant still exists; but the well-wishers of this beautiful species are naturally chary of giving information that might lead to its further persecution. In Scotland there is no reason to suppose that its numbers suffered much diminution until about 1835, or even later, when the systematic destruction of "vermin" on so many moors was begun. In Scotland, however, it is now as much restricted to certain districts as in England or Wales, and those districts it would be most inexpedient to indicate.

The kite is, according to its sex, from 25 to 27 in. in length, about one half of which is made up by its deeply forked tail, capable of great expansion, and therefore a powerful rudder, enabling the bird while soaring on its wide wings, more than 5 ft. in extent, to direct its circling course with scarcely a movement that is apparent to the spectator below. Its general colour is pale reddish-brown or cinnamon, the head being greyish-white, but almost each feather has the shaft dark. The tail feathers are broad, of a light red, barred with deep brown, and furnish the salmon fisher with one of the choicest materials of his "flies." The nest, nearly always built in the crotch of a large tree, is formed of sticks intermixed with many strange substances collected as chance may offer, but among them rags[3] seem always to have a place. The eggs, three or four in number, are of a dull white, spotted and blotched with several shades of brown, and often lilac. It is especially mentioned by old authors that in Great Britain the kite was resident throughout the year; whereas on the Continent it is one of the most regular and marked migrants, stretching its wings towards the south in autumn, wintering in Africa, and returning in spring to the land of its birth.

There is a second European species, not distantly related, the _Milvus migrans_ or _M. ater_ of most authors,[4] smaller in size, with a general dull blackish-brown plumage and a less forked tail. In some districts this is much commoner than the red kite, and on one occasion it has appeared in England. Its habits are very like those of the species already described, but it seems to be more addicted to fishing. Nearly allied to this black kite are the _M. aegyptius_ of Africa, the _M. govinda_ (the common pariah kite of India),[5] the _M. melanotis_ of Eastern Asia, and the _M. affinis_ and _M. isurus_; the last is by some authors removed to another genus or sub-genus as _Lophoictinia_, and is peculiar to Australia, while _M. affinis_ also occurs in Ceylon, Burma, and some of the Malay countries as well. All these may be considered true kites, while those next to be mentioned are more aberrant forms. First there is _Elanus_, the type of which is _E. caeruleus_, a beautiful little bird, the black-winged kite of English authors, that comes to the south of Europe from Africa, and has several congeners--_E. axillaris_ and _E. scriptus_ of Australia being most worthy of notice. An extreme development of this form is found in the African _Nauclerus riocourii_, as well as in _Elanoides furcatus_, the swallow-tailed kite, a widely-ranging bird in America, and remarkable for its length of wing and tail, which gives it a marvellous power of flight, and serves to explain the unquestionable fact of its having twice appeared in Great Britain. To _Elanus_ also _Ictinia_, another American form, is allied, though perhaps more remotely, and it is represented by _I. mississippiensis_, the Mississippi kite, which is by some considered to be but the northern race of the Neotropical _I. plumbea_. _Gampsonyx_, _Rostrhamus_ and _Cymindis_, all belonging to the Neotropical region, complete the series of forms that seem to compose the sub-family _Milvinae_, though there may be doubt about the last, and some systematists would thereto add the perns or honey-buzzards, _Perninae_. (A. N.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In O.E. is _cýta_; no related word appears in cognate languages.
Glede, cognate with "glide," is also another English name.

[2] George, third earl of Orford, died in 1791, and Colonel Thornton,
who with him had been the latest follower of this highest branch of
the art of falconry, broke up his hawking establishment not many
years after. There is no evidence that the pursuit of the kite was in
England or any other country reserved to kings or privileged persons,
but the taking of it was quite beyond the powers of the ordinary
trained falcons, and in older days practically became limited to
those of the sovereign. Hence the kite had attached to it, especially
in France, the epithet of "royal," which has still survived in the
specific appellation of _regalis_ applied to it by many
ornithologists. The scandalous work of Sir Antony Weldon (_Court and
Character of King James_, p. 104) bears witness to the excellence of
the kite as a quarry in an amusing story of the "British Solomon,"
whose master-falconer, Sir Thomas Monson, being determined to outdo
the performance of the French king's falconer, who, when sent to
England to show sport, "could not kill one kite, ours being more
magnanimous than the French kite," at last succeeded, after an outlay
of £1000, in getting a cast of hawks that took nine kites
running--"never missed one." On the strength of this, James was
induced to witness a flight at Royston, "but the kite went to such a
mountee as all the field lost sight of kite and hawke and all, and
neither kite nor hawke were either seen or heard of to this present."

[3] Thus justifying the advice of Shakespeare's Autolycus (_Winter's
Tale_, iv. 3)--"When the kite builds, look to lesser linen"--very
necessary in the case of the laundresses in olden time, when the bird
commonly frequented their drying-grounds.

[4] Dr R. Bowdler Sharpe (_Cat. Birds Brit. Mus._ i. 322) calls it
_M. korschun_, but the figure of S. G. Gmelin's _Accipiter Korschun_,
whence the name is taken, unquestionably represents the moor-buzzard
(_Circus aeruginosus_).

[5] The Brahminy kite of India, _Haliastur Indus_, seems to be rather
a fishing eagle.