76 A HISTORY OF 



casting stones to scare it from its plunder. For this reason, of a. 

 birds, the kite is the good housewife's greatest tormentor and aversion. 

 Of all obscene birds, the kite is the best known; but the bu/zard 

 among us is the most plenty. He is a sluggish inactive bird, and of- 

 ten remains perched whole days together upon the same bough. He 

 is rather an assassin than a pursuer ; and lives more upon frogs, mice, 

 and insects, which he can easily seize, than upon birds which he ia 

 obliged to follow. He lives in summer by robbing the nests of other 

 birds, and sucking their eggs, and more resembles the owl kind in his 

 countenance than any other rapacious bird' of day. His figure implies 

 the stupidity of his disposition ; and so little is he capable of instruc- 

 tion from man, that it is common to a proverb to call one who cannot 

 be taught, or continues obstinately ignorant, a buzzard. The honey- 

 buzzard, the moor-buzzard, and the hen-harrier, are all of this stupid 

 tribe, and differ chiefly in their size, growing less in the order I have 

 named them. The gos-hawk and sparrow-hawk are what Mr. Wil- 

 loughby calls short-winged birds, and consequently unfit for training, 

 however injurious they may be to the pigeon-house or the sportsman. 

 They have been indeed taught to fly at game ; but little is to be ob- 

 tained from their efforts, being difficult of instruction and capricious 

 in their obedience. It has been lately asserted, however, by one 

 whose authority is respectable, that the sparrow-hawk is the boldest 

 and the best of all others for the pleasure of the chase. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE BUTCHER-BIRD. 



BEFORE I conclude this short history of rapacious birds that prey 

 Df day, I must take leave to describe a tribe of smaller birds, that seem 

 from their size rather to be classed with the harmless order of the 

 sparrow-kind ; but that from their crooked beak, courage and appe- 

 tites for slaughter, certainly deserve a place here. The lesser butcher- 

 bird is not much above the size of a lark ; that of the smallest species 

 is not so big as a sparrow ; yet, diminutive as these little animals are, 

 they make themselves formidable to birds of four times their dimen- 

 sions. 



The greater butcher-bird is about as large as a thrush ; its bill is 

 black, an inch long, and hookeJ at the end. This mark, together 

 with its carnivorous appetites, ranks it among the rapacious birds ; at 

 the same time that its legs and feet, which are slender, and its toes, 

 formed somewhat differently from the former, would seem to make it 

 the shade between such birds as live wholly upon flesh, and such as 

 live chiefly upon insects and grain. 



Indeed, its habits seem entirely to correspond with its conformation, 

 as it is found to live as well upon flesh as upon insects, and thus to 

 partake in some measure of a double nature However, its appetite 



