460 AVES—KITE. 
covered with thick herbage ; the female lays three or four eggs of a whitish 
color, irregularly sprinkled with dusky spots. Though smaller, it is more 
active and bold than the common buzzard, and when pursued, it faces its 
antagonist, and makes a vigorous defence. 
Birds of this kind differ much; in some the crown and back part of the 
head being yellow; while some are uniformly of a chocolate brown, with a 
tinge of rust color. 
DEE KT Ee 
Is distinguished by his forked tail, and slow sailing flight, in which he seems 
perpetually on the wing. He is larger than the common buzzard. He has 
large eyes, yellow legs and feet, and black talons. The head and back are 
of a pale ash hue, which is varied across the shafts of the feathers by longi- 
tudinal lines. His neck is reddish ; the featheys covering the inside of the 
Wings are red, with black spots in the centre; and the lesser rows of the 
wing feathers are party-colored black, red, and white. He lives only upon 
accidental carnage, as almost every bird in the air is able to make good his 
retreat against him. He may be, therefore, considered as an insidious thief, 
who only prowls about, and, when he finds a small bird wounded, ora 
young chicken strayed too far from the mother, instantly seizes the hour of 
ealamity, and, like a famished glutton, is sure to show no mercy. His 
hunger, indeed, often urges him to acts of seeming desperation. We have 
seen one of them fly round and round for a while to mark a clutch of 
chickens, and then ona sudden dart like lightning upon the unresisting 
little animal, and carry it off, the hen in vain crying out, and the boys 
hooting and casting stones to scare it from its plunder. For this reason, of 
all birds, the kite is the good housewife’s greatest tormenter and aversion. 
—- 
) Falco milvus, Lin. 
