THE SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. 



49 



The Arabian Kite still plays the same part in Africa as was formerly taken in England 

 by its European relative. 



It is a bold and familiar bird, haunting the habitations of man, and audaciously carrying 

 off its prey, undeterred by human presence. As it will eat garbage of almost any nature, it is 

 a valuable ally to the unclean villagers ; carrying away the offal which is liberally ilung out 

 of the houses, and scarcely pennitting it to rest on the ground before it is seen and devoured. 

 The bird is strictly protected on account of the services which it continually renders ; and so 

 utterly fearless does it become through long experience of the ways of man, that it pays visits 

 to every house in the village, in hopes of finding food of some kind. When Le VaiUant was 

 employed in preparing his dinner at his wagons, the Kites came and boldly carried off the 

 meat, heedless of the shots that were fired and the cries that were raised, and even returned 

 for a second supply as soon as they had disposed of their former booty. 



KITES.— J/iVi'M migrans and Mihus tegalis. 



The beautiful bird which is so well known under the appropriate title of the Swallow- 

 tailed Kite, is an inhabitant of various parts of America. This species seems to be dis- 

 tributed over a considerable tract of countiy, according to the observations of many practical 

 ornithologists. Mr. Nuttal has the following remarks on the habitat of the Swallow-tailed 

 Falcon. 



"This beautiful bird breeds and passes the summer in the wanner parts of the United 

 States, and is also probably resident in all tropical and temperate America ; emigrating into 

 the southern as well as well as the northern hemisphere. In the former, according to Vieillot, 

 it is found in Peru, and as far as Buenos Ayres ; and though it is extremely rare to meet with 

 this species as far as the latitude of forty degrees, in the Atlantic States, yet, tempted by the 

 abundance of the fruitful valley of the Mississippi, individuals have been seen along that river 



Vou U.-1. 



