THE RED KITE 339 



" Here is Satan's picture, 

 Pouncing poor Redcastle 

 Like a blizzard gled, 

 Sprawlin' like a taed." 



But Hurdis was more kind and just : 



" Mark but the soaring kite and she will read 

 Brave rules for diet; teach thee how to feede ; 

 She flies aloft; she spreads her ayrie plumes 

 Above the earth ; above the nauseous fumes 

 Of dang'rous earth ; she makes herself a stranger 

 T' inferior things, and checks at every danger." 



We may perhaps be allowed, by the chariest of 

 agriculturists, to say that a species may be most undesir- 

 able in certain districts, but a welcome and even useful 

 bird in others; and this is specially true of birds who 

 devour carrion. 



The Kite is about 24 inches in length. The back is 

 rusty-red, the feathers there having dark shaft lines and 

 edges. The tail is strongly forked. The female is less 

 brightly coloured than the male and the young still less 

 so. The thighs are clad with feathers, the legs bare, 

 claws moderately strong and sharp. The bill is sickle- 

 shaped and has a yellow cere at its base. The irides 

 are yellowish-white. The Kite is a keen-sighted bird of 

 prey, and builds its nest for the most part on the highest . 

 trees in the woods. It lays two or three eggs, more 

 rarely four, with dirty blotches, smears, and spots on a 

 greenish-white ground. 



