THE KITE. 



very foolish superstition here ; the boys may take 

 them unrestrained, but their mothers so dislike 

 their being kept in the house, that they usually 

 break them ; their presence may be tolerated for a 

 few days, but by the ensuing Sunday are frequently 

 destroyed, under the idea that they bring bad luck, 

 or prevent the coming of good fortune, as if in some 

 way offensive to the domestic deity of the hearth : 

 having occasionally enquired for these plunders of 

 our small birds at the cottages, to supply some 

 deficiencies in a collection, I have found so general 

 a prepossession against retaining them, as in most 

 cases to fail of success. 



The kite (falco milvus) is one of our rarest birds. 

 We see it occasionally, in its progress to other 

 parts, sailing along sedately on its way ; but it never 

 visits us. Our copses present it with no enticing 

 harbourage, and our culture scares it. In former 

 years I was intimately acquainted with this bird ; 

 but its numbers seem greatly on the decline, having 

 been destroyed, or driven away to lonely places, or 

 to the most extensive woodlands. In the breeding 

 season it will at times approach near the outskirts 

 of villages, seeking materials for its nest ; but in 

 general it avoids the haunts of man. It is the 

 finest native bird that we possess, and all its deport- 

 ment partakes of a dignity peculiar to itself, well 

 becoming a denizen of the forest or the park ; for 

 though we see it sometimes in company with the 

 buzzard, it is never to be mistaken for this clumsy 

 bird, which will escape from the limb of some tree, 



Q, 



