THE KITE. 
158 
of some of the various nations who have ruled in our 
islands Bird-nesting boys, I suppose, are yet to be met 
with in many a rural village, being a habit from imme- 
morial antiquity, pursued with eagerness in contention 
with their fellows for numbers and rarity, but that ac- 
complished, like so many of our pursuits in after-life, 
the pleasure ceases when rivalry is no more : but re- 
garding these birds’ eggs we have a very foolish super- 
stition here ; the boys may take them unrestrained, but 
their mothers so dislike their being kept in the house, 
that they usually break them ; their presence may be 
tolerated for a few days, but by the ensuing Sunday are 
frequently destroyed, under the idea that they bring 
bad luck, or prevent the coming of good fortune, as if 
in some way offensive to the domestic deity of the 
hearth : having occasionally inquired for these plunders 
of our small birds at the cottages, to supply some defi- 
ciencies in a collection, I have found so general a pre- 
possession against retaining them, as in most cases to 
fail of success. 
The kite (falco milvus) is one of our rarest birds. 
We see it occasionally, in its progress to other parts, 
sailing along sedately on its way ; but it never visits us. 
Our copses present it with no enticing harborage, and 
our culture scares it. In former years I was intimately 
acquainted with this bird ; but its numbers seem greatly 
on the decline, having been destroyed, or driven away 
to lonely places, or to the most extensive woodlands. 
In the breeding season it will at times approach near 
the outskirts of villages, seeking materials for its nest ; 
but in general it avoids the haunts of man. It is the 
finest native bird that we possess, and all its deportment 
partakes of a dignity peculiar to itself, well becoming 
a denizen of the forest or the park ; for though we see 
it sometimes in company with the buzzard, it is never 
to be mistaken for this clumsy bird, which will escape 
from the limb of some tree, with a confused and hurried 
flight, indicative of fear ; while the kite moves steadily 
from the summit of the loftiest oak, the scathed crest 
of the highest poplar, or the most elevated ash — circles 
round and round, sedate and calm, and then leaves us. 
