146 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



latter bird became a common term of abuse. For 

 the Kite was once as common in England as in India : 

 a Bohemian visitor noticed in the fifteenth century 

 that he had never seen so many Kites anywhere as 

 round London Bridge — an observation that throws 

 a lurid light on the City sanitation. The common 

 European Kite, however, is not exactly the same 

 bird as his relative here. Milvus govmda, our urban 

 sanitator, is smaller than Mihms ictmus of Europe, 

 which is much redder in colour, especially on the tail, 

 and whiter on the head — in fact a finer bird 

 altogether. 



This bird, despised as he was generally, was royal 

 game in falconry ; for, coward as the Kite is, to 

 capture him taxes the powers of a falcon to the 

 utmost, and one that could perform the feat' was 

 deemed fit for " a prince's pleasant sport." The 

 Kite when pursued by the falcon " takes the sky," 

 and both birds rise to a great height, the quarry 

 endeavouring, as long as he may, to shift from the 

 fatal grip of his more powerful enemy. Indeed, m 

 one case in which King James I was induced 

 personally to witness the flight at a Kite of a couple 

 of falcons which had been procured for him, both 

 pursuers and pursued went out of sight altogether 

 and permanently, an extreme form of the diversion 

 which could hardly have been pleasing to the 



