prey beneath, and occasionally descends from 
its aerial height, in order to seize some bird 
or other animal within its view. It princi- 
pally preys on young chickens, ducks, gos- 
lings, &c. and is in consequence proscribed 
by the universal voice of every village in the 
country. Were it not for those depredations 
its appearance would be welcomed as the 
harbinger of fine weather, for it is in clear 
skies that it makes its principal excursions. 
In the days of King Henry the Eighth 
the British metropolis swarmed with Kites, 
which were attracted by the various kinds 
of offal thrown into the streets, and were so 
fearless as to take their prey in the midst of 
the greatest crowds, it being forbidden to 
kill them. Thus the Kite was as much re- 
verenced in the streets of London, in those 
times, as the Vulture is at this day in those 
of Grand Cairo or Alexandria. The de- 
scent of a Kite at the present day in Cheap- 
side or Charing-Cross would probably attract 
as sudden a crowd as any other unexpected 
phenomenon, and would doubtless be re- 
corded in the public prints as an event of 
singular curiosity. 
