THE KITE IN ANCIENT LONDON. 349 



It is probably seldom remembered now-a-days that 

 formerly the kite (Milvus Ictinus, or the brown European 

 variety) was very common all over Great Britain, where 

 it is now practically extinct. " Three or four hundred 

 years ago (says the Encyclopedia Britannicd) foreigners 

 were struck with its abundance in the streets of London," 

 where it was doubtless the public scavenger of those 

 days, much as it is in many oriental towns and vil- 

 lages at the present time. " Wolley has well re- 

 marked of the modern Londoners, that few who see 

 the paper kite hovering over the parks, on fine days 

 in summer, have any idea that the bird from which 

 they derive their name used to float all day in hot 

 weather, high over the heads of their ancestors. " * 



The functions which birds of the hawk tribe fulfil 

 in their place in Nature, in killing living birds, is also 

 no doubt one of great moment to the general welfare : 

 though in England and other places where game is 

 preserved, their action is regarded as in every way 

 injurious. It is however probable that this is a very 

 erroneous view to take of their functions: because in 

 every wild country the more numerous the birds of 

 prey are found to be, the more numerous are game 

 birds and indeed every kind of bird life. Here there- 

 fore, where there is no * vermin killing " to keep up 

 the head of game, the quantities of birds frequently 

 largely exceed anything that is met with in the 

 preserved moorlands and covers of Great Britain. In 

 some parts of India for instance, the quantities of 

 pigeons, doves, quail, myna birds, and other bird life 

 of many sorts is simply enormous; though birds of 



* Encycl. Brit.) gth Edit., Vol. xiv, pp. 103 and 104 (Article "The 

 Kite "). 



