166 
A DESCRIPTION OF 
wild, they feed only upon birds, and possess a boldness 
and courage above their size ; but in a domestic state 
they do not refuse raw flesh and mice. They can be 
made obedient and docile, and readily trained to hunt 
quails and partridges. 
THE KITE. (Falco Milvus.) 
THIS bird, though it belongs to the falcon tribe, is called 
ignoble ; because it is never used in hawking. The Kite 
is easily distinguished from all the other birds of prey by 
his forked tail, and the slow and circular eddies he de- 
scribes in the air, whenever he spies from the regions of 
the clouds a young duck or a chicken which has strayed 
too far from the brood. When this is the case, the Kite, 
