KITE.] NATURAL HISTORY. 171 



Keech. 



ii. KING HENRY IV., ii. I, 101. 



A KEECH is the fat of an ox rolled up by the butcher 

 into a round lump. 



Steevens, loc. tit. t and cf. KING HENRY VIII. i. I, 55. 



Kernel. V. Nut. 

 Kex. 



KING HENRY V., v. 2. 



V. Hemlock. 



Kite. 



A KITE is weak in flight and in strength. And is a 

 bird that may well away with travail, and therefore he 

 taketh cuckoos upon his shoulders, and beareth them, lest 

 they fail in space of long ways, and bringeth them out of 

 the countries of Spain. And he is a ravishing fowl, and 

 hardy among small birds, and a coward and fearful among 

 great birds, and dreadeth to lie in wait to take wild birds, 

 and dreadeth not to lie in wait to take tame birds, and 

 lieth oft in wait to take chickens, and he eateth carrions 

 and unclean things. And is taken with the sparhawk, and 

 for his faint ness and cowardness he is overcome of a bird 

 that is less than he. And in youth there seemeth no 

 difference between the Kite and other birds of prey ; but 

 the longer he liveth, the more he sheweth that his own 

 kind is unkind. And there is a manner Kite, that taketh 

 birds in the beginning, and afterward he eateth guts of 

 beasts, and taketh unneath afterward flies and small worms. 



IAjid he dieth for hunger at the last, and is a cruel fowl 

 ibout his birds [i.e., young], and is sorry when he seeth 

 them fat ; and to make them lean, he beateth them with 

 his bill, and withdraweth their meat ; and hath a voice of 

 plaining and of moan, as it were messenger of hunger ; 

 for when he hungereth, he seeketh his meat weeping with 

 voice of plaining and of moan. 

 Bartholomew (Bertfo/et), bk. xii. 26. 





