A BIRD OF ILL-OMEN.
With the ancients the kite appears to have been a bird of ill-omen. In Cymbeline (Act i. Sc. 2), Imogen says:—
“I chose an eagle, and did avoid a puttock.”
And the superiority of the eagle is again adverted to by Hastings, in Richard III. (Act i. Sc. 1):—
“More pity that the eagle should be mew’d,
While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.”
The intractable disposition of the kite is thus noticed:—
“Another way I have to man my haggard,
To make her come, and know her keeper’s call;
That is, to watch her, as we watch these kites,