4 6 
HABITS OF THE KITE. 
“ But I will watch you from such watching now.” 
Romeo and Juliet , Act iv. Sc. 4. 
The habit which the kite has, in common with other 
rapacious birds, of rejecting or disgorging the undigested 
portions of its food, such as bones and fur, in the shape of 
pellets, was apparently well known to Shakespeare, for 
he says:— 
“ If charnel-houses and our graves must send 
Those that we bury back, our monuments 
Shall be the maws of kites.” 
Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 4. 
And again,— 
“ Thou detestable maw .... 
Gorg’d with the dearest morsel of the earth.” 
Romeo and Juliet _, Act v. Sc. 3. 
Another curious fact in the natural history of the kite 
is adverted to in the Winters Tale (Act iv. Sc. 2). It is 
there said,— 
“ When the kite builds, look to lesser linen.” 
This line may be perhaps best illustrated by giving a 
description of a kite’s nest which we have seen, and which 
was taken many years ago in Huntingdonshire. The 
outside of the nest was composed of strong sticks ; the 
lining consisted of small pieces of linen, part of a saddle- 
girth, a bit of a harvest glove, part of a straw bonnet, 
