ji._ 



uH rj_ > 



HONEY BUZZARD.— Pern fs Aj'iivrds. 



The whole of the legs are mottled with white and yellowish-brown, and the tail is baiTed 

 with light and deep brown alternately. The claws and beak are black, and the space 

 between the beak and the eyes is thickly covered with little round feathers. The 

 length of the Bird is twenty-two or twenty-four inches, the female being ahvays the 

 larger. 



The Kite may be known, even on the wing, from all other British birds of prey, by its 

 beautifully easy flight, and the long forked tail. Indeed, while flying, the Kite bears no 

 small resemblance to a very large swallow, excepting that the flight is more gliding, and 

 the wings are seldom flapped. 



Despite the ill savour into which the name of the Kite has fallen, it is really a 

 magnificent specimen of the falconidse, and deserves its specific title of "regalis," or regal, 

 quite as much for its own merits as from the fact that it had once the very great honour 

 to be chased by royalty. It seems that the later kings of France were in the habit of 

 marking the Kite as the quarry which was specially suitable to their regal state, and 

 were accustomed to fly their hawks at Kites, instead of herons, as was usually the mode 

 of procedure in the noble sport of falconry. The Kite is therefore termed regal, not on 

 account of any innate royalty in the bird, but simply because royal personages chose to 

 pursue it. 



The Kite was in former days one of the commonest of the British birds, swarming in 

 every forest, building its nest near every village, and being the greatest pest of the farmer 

 and poultry-keeper, on account of its voracity, craft, and swiftness. Even the metropolis 

 was filled with these birds, who acted the same part that is played by vultures in more 

 eastern lands, and were accustomed to haunt the streets for the purpose of eating the ofial 

 which was so liberally flung out of doors in the good old times, and which, but for the 

 providential instincts of the Kites, would have been permitted to decompose in the open 

 streets of our obtusely-scented ancestors. In consequence of the services which they 

 rendered, the Kites were protected by common consent, and were therefore extremely 

 familiar, not to say importunate, in their habits, settling on the butcher's blocks, and 



