Description: WHAT COULD BE MORE PRECIOUS to a boy who collects birds' eggs than one from a species of which there are only twenty-five known to exist in the entire country? For Taylor, the temptation to rob the nest of a pair of severely endangered red kites becomes insurmountable when landowner Reg Harris actually asks him to do it, despite the fact that it is illegal. Taylor's dad works for Harris as his gamekeeper, raising pheasants and also protecting them from "vermin" -- crows, foxes, weasels, and now the rare kites -- and sometimes Taylor is enlisted for odd jobs on the property. After stealing the eggs, Taylor tells Harris he's gotten rid of the incriminating evidence, but secretly he has kept it. In trying to hollow out the eggs for his collection, Harris discovers during two gruesome attempts that the birds' embryos are too fully developed to blow out without damaging the shells. One egg is left, and Taylor, feeling horribly guilty, hides it in the chicken coop, where it soon hatches. With his friend Alan, Taylor raises the kite with the hope of setting it free, but the approaching hunting season keeps the bird's survival in serious jeopardy.

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