158 THE KITE. 



of some of the various nations who have ruled in our 

 island. Bird-nesting boys, I suppose, are yet to be met 

 with in many a rural village, being a habit from imme- 

 morial antiquity,, pursued with eagerness in contention 

 with their fellows for numbers and rarity, but that ac- 

 complished, like so many of our pursuits in after-life, 

 the pleasure ceases when rivalry is no more : but re- 

 garding these birds' eggs we have a very foolish super- 

 stition 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 inquired for these plunders 

 of our small birds at the cottages, to supply some defi- 

 ciencies in a collection, I have found so general a pre- 

 possession 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 harborage, 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 deportment 

 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, with a confused and hurried 

 flight, indicative of fear ; while the kite moves steadily 

 from the summit of the loftiest oak, the scathed crest 

 of the highest poplar, or the most elevated ash circles 

 round and round, sedate and .calm, and then leaves us. 



