186 
DESCRIP. 
ie id ee Crass If. 
the Saxon Glida. Lord Bacon obferves, that when 
kites fy high, it portends fair and dry weather. 
Some have fuppofed thefe to be birds of paffage; — 
but in England they certainly continue the whole 
year. Clufus relates* that when he was in London, 
he obferved a moft amazing number of kites that — 
flocked there for the fake of the offals,. &c. which 
were flung in the ftreets. They were fo tame as to 
take their prey in the midft of the greateft crowds; 
and it was forbidden to kill them. 
The tail of this kind is fufficient to diftinguith it 
from all other Briti/h birds of prey, being forked. 
Pliny thinks that the invention of the rudder arofe 
from the obfervation men made of the various mo- 
tions of that part, when the kite was fteering 
through the air+. Certain it is that the moft 
ufeful arts were originally copied from ani- 
mals ; however we may now have improved up- 
on them. Still in thofe nations which are in a 
{tate of nature, (fuch as the Samoieds and E/qui- 
maux) their dwellings are inferior to thofe of the 
beavers, which thofe fcarcely human beings but 
poorly copy. 
The weight of this fpecies is forty-four ounces: 
the length twenty-feven: the breadth five feet one 
inch. The bill is two inches long, and very much 
* Belon cbf. ad finem Clus. exet. 108. 
+ lidem videntur artem gubernandi docuifle caudz flexibus. 
Eib. x, ¢. 10- 
in 
