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.
THE KITE’S NEST.