THE KITE. 



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 

 gome way offensive to the domestic deity of the 

 hearth : having occasionally enquired for these plun- 

 ders of our small birds at the cottages, to supply 

 some deficiencies in a collection, I have found so 

 general a prepossession 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 harbourage, 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, in- 



