272 MILVUS REGALIS. 



dead fish thrown ashore by the waves, and sometimes on car- 

 rion. It is not afraid of approaching dwelling-places, and car- 

 ries off a great number of ducklings, goslings, and chickens ; 

 but the mere anger of the hen is enough to drive it back, and 

 it presently flies oiF. No bird has a more easy or rapid flight. 

 It is named the Royal Kite, because it was subservient to the 

 pleasure of princes, who hunted it with the falcon and sparrow- 

 hawk ; but the epithet royal is ill merited by the kite. In 

 fact we see this cowardly bird, which ranks among the ignoble 

 hawks, because it is not susceptible of any education, although 

 endowed with all the faculties which ought to give it courage, 

 and having no defect of arms, strength, or agility, refuse to 

 fight, and fly before the much smaller sparrow hawk, turning 

 and rising to conceal itself in the clouds, until the more active 

 and courageous hawk overtakes it, assails it with wings, talons, 

 and bill, and drags it to the earth less wounded than beaten, 

 and more vanquished by the dread than by the strength of its 

 enemy.''"' 



There is nothing marvellous in a Falcon's beating a Kite, it 

 being a more muscular and vigorous bird. As to the Sparrow 

 Hawk, its audacity seems scarcely to have any bounds, for it 

 has been seen to strike even a Golden Eagle, and it "is very 

 probable that it might disable a Buzzard as well as a Kite. If 

 this bird does not defend itself against its puny antagonist, it 

 must be because its organization does not fit it for this sort of 

 warfare, and if it seldom ventures to attack a large bird or 

 quadruped, it must be for the same reason ; yet the Kite, 

 judging from its appearance, is well furnished with arms, for 

 its bill is powerful, and its claws well curved and finely pointed, 

 and it has a kind of flight not excelled in ease and flexility 

 by that of any other British bird of prey. Few of our birds 

 have been yet studied with suflicient minuteness and care, so 

 that the accounts given by authors are not always to be de- 

 pended upon. For my part, I am more disposed to give credit 

 to those who admire the Kite for its good qualities, rather 

 than despise it for its inferiority to some other birds. As to 

 its ignobility, or, in other words, its incapability of being 

 taught, this is contradicted by Mr Thompson of Belfast, who, 



