31 
from the catalogue of noble birds, and ba- 
nished from the school of falconry. In all 
ages it has been common to compare a gross 
shameless man to a Kite, and a disgusting 
stupid woman to a Buzzard." 
The same author informs us, that in 
France " it was formerly an amusement for 
princes to hunt this bird with the falcon or 
sparrow-hawk. It is indeed entertaining to 
see it, though possessed of all that ought to 
inspire courage, and deficient neither in 
weapons, strength, nor agility* decline the 
combat, and fly before a sparrow-hawk 
smaller than itself ; it constantly circles and 
rises, as it were, to conceal itself in the 
clouds, and when overtaken, it suffers itself 
to be beaten without resistance, and brought 
to the ground, not wounded but vanquished, 
and rather overcome with fear than subdued 
by the force of its antagonist." 
Scarcely any one can be unacquainted 
with the elegant appearance of this bird 
while sailing aloft in its circling flight, and 
maintaining its equilibrium by a slight ex- 
ertion of its pinions at distant intervals. 
During these wanderings it is meditating its 
