220 SPIZ^ETUS. 



the Kite being a native of Ireland, and although, 

 as Mr Thompson remarks, the name of " Kite," 

 occurs in the statistical surveys, &c. the provin- 

 cial and more general application of the word to 

 the Buzzard, and some of the larger Raptores, 

 renders it very doubtful that the application was 

 ever correctly made. Rewards were of old 

 offered for the destructon of the " Kite" as a bird 

 of prey, but the doubt here continues the same.* 

 On the continent of Europe it seems equally but 

 as locally distributed. 



We have now to notice another form, which, 

 though it possesses a very dubious claim to a 

 place in our Fauna, it would scarcely be proper 

 to omit, so long as the facts of its capture remain 

 uncontradicted, and also as it illustrates that divi- 

 sion of the birds of prey which Mr Svvainson 

 considers to be the Rasorial. The genus Spizaetus 

 of Vieillot contains birds of a very noble aspect, 

 from their compact, yet somewhat elegant form, 

 and from the conspicuous crest with which the 

 head of most of them is adorned. 



SPIZ^TUS. Generic characters. Bill strong, 

 with a lobe or festoon in the centre of the 

 edge of the mandible ; orbits and lores 



* See 1 1 Anne, ch. 7, quoted in Mag. of Zool. and 

 Bot. II. p. 172. 



