FALCO MILVUS. 145 



I should have fatted all the legion kites 



With this slave's offal : Bloody, bawdy villain ! 



Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain ! 



And almost to prove that Shakespeare took his similes from 

 the kites of London, he makes Coriolanus say, in answer to the 

 question " Where dwellest thou 1 " 



Cor. " I' the city of kites and crotos ? 



Serv. T the city of kites and crows ? Then thou dtvcllest 

 with dates too ? " 



Kites being as plentiful as daws were in the streets of London 

 in his time. 



In the " Winter's Tale " the thief Autolycus says— 



" My traffic is sheets ; when the kite builds look to lesser linen— 

 My father was likewise a snapper up of trifles." 



The kite would no doubt snap up " lesser linen " when it built 

 its nest in London. 



He makes the braggart Pistol say in " Henry V." — 



" And from the powdering tub of infamy 

 Fetch forth the lazar kite o/Cressid's kind." 



Cressida — though a priest's daughter — being the very type of 

 falsehood in woman. 



Troilus. " O, Cressid ! O, false Cressid ! false, false, false, 

 Let all untruths stand by thy stained name ! " 



Or, as Lennox says to Macbeth — 



" The obscene bird clamour'd the livelong night." 



But his allusions to the kite are various, as if it was 

 ever before his mind as a carrion bird of the worst kind. Yet 

 it is proverbial for the ease and gracefulness of its flight — 

 sweeping the air in wide circles, with motionless wings, or with 

 an almost imperceptible beat at distant intervals, directing its 

 course by its long tail, which acts as a rudder, and whose slightest 

 motion guides it — like the easy sweep of the dolphins' in the 

 sea. It often soars to such a height as to be almost lost to 

 human ken, gliding and sailing with outspread wings and 

 extended tail. Buffon says — " One cannot but admire the flight 

 of the kite ; his long, narrow wings seem motionless ; the tail 

 seems to direct all his evolutions, and he moves it continually ; 

 he rises without effort, comes down as if sliding along an inclined 

 plane ; he seems rather to swim than to fly ; he darts forward, 

 slackens his speed, stops, and remains suspended or fixed in the 



