Kite (bird)

“ The kite’s extended wings measure more than a meter and a half from tip to tip, and its flight presents a fine spectacle. When the bird sweeps in wide circles through the upper atmosphere, it is as if it were swimming, gliding without the least apparent exertion. ”

“ The snail kite, one of America’s rarest birds, flies low over the fresh-water marshes, its head pointed downward, searching for its sole food—the Pomacea snail. A sharply hooked beak enables it to remove the snail from its shell. More striking in appearance is its cousin, the swallow-tailed kite, aerial acrobat of the hawk family—a migrant that nests in the park in spring and spends the winter in South America. On long, pointed wings this handsome bird eats in the air while holding itself in one place on the wind. ”

“ It seems indeed desirous of making the nest as conspicuous as possible, and hangs it all over with bits of cloth, strips of bark, wings of birds, and even the cast skins of serpents.
Another species (Milvus Ægyptiacus) is sometimes called the Black Kite from the dark hue of its plumage, but ought rather to retain the title of Egyptian Kite. Unlike the black kite, this bird is a great thief, and makes as much havoc among poultry as the red kite. It is also a robber of other birds, and if it should happen to see a weaker bird with food, it is sure to attack and rob it. ”

“ If a little variety in outline is desired, split bamboo or reed could be used to make such forms as are desired; even string connections can be made.
In making hollow form objects both patience and skill are necessary. A form that is interesting but not representative of any real object is shown in Fig. 99. Another is the arrow kite, Fig. 100. The flying bird kite should make a good problem for some ingenious chap. The framework and stringing is shown in Fig. 101. The cross-section of the body of the bird is about the shape of a tailless kite. ”

“ In revenge, it is really a pleasure to see a kite gnaw a bone which he has thus purloined. If he does not take care to perform that operation high up in the air, he is invariably flanked by two crows, one of which keeps constantly pulling him behind to make him angry, whilst the other avails himself of this artifice to peck at the bone in the very claws of the kite. After a while, the crows change parts, and each in his turn becomes the assailant. I perceive at this moment in our court another bird, less common than the two preceding species, but still not at all rare. ”

“ Whilst the man in the canoe paddles slowly ahead, the movement of the kite whisks the bait about on the surface of the water; and when the fish bites, the kite goes down. Instead of a hook and bait, the natives usually employ for this mode of fishing some stout spider-web, [152] which gets entangled around the teeth and snout of the fish, and can be used several times. The explanation of this plan of catching fish is probably as follows. The kite swaying in the air offers some resemblance to an aquatic bird hovering over the water where a shoal of small fish occurs. ”

“ If he is a sensible bird he will at once fly off, in hopes that the perditious crows will not follow him. If he remains, the posteriorly situated crow takes a peck at his tail. He, of course, turns upon the aggressor, and thus gives the front bird the opportunity for which it has been waiting. Sooner or later the kite has to move on.
Kites are very fond of settling on the tops of posts, and on other spiky places; this feature they share with crows, green parrots, blue jays, and other birds. ”

“ Doubtless it was a great thing to bring down this great bird "that soars sublime" and nail it to the barn-door. By the middle of the last century it had become a rarity, and the ensuing rush for specimens and eggs for private collectors quickly brought about its virtual extinction. The kite is but one of several species--six of them hawks--extirpated within the last forty years. Why, then, does the daw, more injurious to the game-preserver and henwife than any one of these lost hawks, continue to flourish and increase in numbers? ”

“ The soaring bird, Fig. 102, is quite similar in construction to the preceding kite. The body is never square in cross-section. A little bow is given to the tip ends of the wings. The back line of the wing changes by means of an extra cord. This kite is not as stable as “The flying Bird.”
Fig. 95. ↑
The “flying fish,” Fig. 103, needs vents, as the whole body is a box-kite. Two views of the framework are given; a center spine runs the entire length of the fish with two curves at the mouth. The mouth is left open, so string is used for the outline. ”

“ Anybody can fly this kite. It goes up straight from the hand like a bird. Will fly in a moderate breeze, and yet no wind short of a gale is too strong for it. It is made of strong, selected wood, and the finest cotton, in red. ”

“ A good saker flown at kite in cantonments will single out and stick to one bird, even when the air is black with kites. Indian falconers generally select a young female kite at which to unhood the hawk. Whether, if the hawk were unhooded at an old bird, she would not be tempted to abandon it for the feebler flight of a young one, is a question. ”

“ A pleasing modification is an ingenious tail attachment that is hinged to the body so that the tail drops and is raised again by the breeze, giving the appearance of fluttering when a little distance away. Fig. 47 is a photograph of three that were flown at one time and were mistaken by many for real birds, while Fig. 48 is a photograph of a pair with fluttering tails. In each picture the back of one bird is shown. In Fig. 47 the birds are flat but in Fig. 48 the bodies are rounded out, giving a keel to the kite. This is done by making a light framework of small split bamboo. ”

“ In this arrangement gravity is overcome by the wing reversing its planes and acting as a kite which flies alternately forwards and backwards. The kites formed by the wings of the bat and bird always fly forward (fig. 88, p. 166) . In the insect, as in the bat and bird, the posterior margin of the wing never rises above the horizon so as to make an upward and backward angle with it, as stated by Borelli, Marey, and others (c x a of fig. 114, p. 228) . ”

“ They are supported, as a paper kite is, by the wind, which is continually pushing against their wings, and sliding out backward and downward, thus lifting or holding up the bird, and at the same time driving it forward.
A SKILLFUL FLYER.
The birds are not compelled to face the wind while they are sailing, but by changing the position of the wings a little they can go in whatever direction they wish, much as a boy changes his direction in skating by leaning a little to one side or the other. ”

“ It is obvious that the bower-birds are highly intelligent creatures, but these tastes appear in birds which are quite low in the scale of mental development, even among the hawks, which are among the 103least keen-witted of the birds. The kite, for instance, has a great liking for pretty things, or what it considers such. In two of the rare instances in which the kite’s nest has been recently found in this country, the cock-bird had carried home a long, trailing spray of woodbine in flower, and left it by the side of its mate. ”

“ Occasionally one may still see this bird hung up in cottages, a remnant, no doubt, of this old superstition. [255]
Kite. This bird was considered by the ancients to be unlucky. In “Julius Cæsar” (v. 1) Cassius says:
“ravens, crows, and kites,
Fly o’er our heads, and downward look on us.”
In “Cymbeline” (i. 2) , too, Imogen says, [132]
“I chose an eagle,
And did avoid a puttock,”
puttock, here, being a synonym sometimes applied to the kite. [256] Formerly the kite became a term of reproach from its ignoble habits. Thus, in “Antony and Cleopatra” (iii. 13) , Antony exclaims, “you kite!” ”

“ In still air the kite will not fly unless the boy who holds the string runs very fast and so causes an artificial breeze to blow against the kite. In much the same way a hovering bird is held aloft by the wind. In a dead calm the bird must flap its wings to keep afloat. If the kite string is cut the kite tips over and drops to the earth because it has lost its balance. The lifting power of the wind is well shown in the man-lifting kites which are used in the British army service. ”

“ Then all the other birds cursed her, that she might never be able to drink water out of wells and rivers, and should slake her thirst only with the dew and rain from heaven, nor should she be able to drink by lifting her beak and catching the falling rain, but she would only be able to drink the rain-water which was running down her wings. Therefore, in time of drought, the kite flies high up to God and prays for rain and dew, for if she drinks of the water of rivers and wells she dies. ”

“ Thus, of each of the following pairs of birds the first-named is migratory and the other non-migratory: the steppe-eagle and the tawny eagle, the large Indian and the common kite, the long-legged and the white-eyed buzzard, the sparrow-hawk and the shikra, the peregrine and the lugger falcon, the common and the red-headed merlin, the kestrel and the black-winged kite.
It is tempting to formulate the theory that the raptores are migratory or the reverse according or not as they prey on birds of passage, and that the former migrate merely in order to follow their quarry. ”

“ Then there are the birds that fly overhead—the great kite-like ospreys that frequently check their flight to drop into the water with a big splash, in order to secure a fish; the kingfishers that dive so neatly as barely to disturb the smooth surface of the lake when they enter and leave it; the graceful terns that pick their food off the face of the jhil; the swifts and swallows that feed on the insects which always hover over still water. ”

“ Hardly has it nestled, with much heaving of billowy sides, into its hollow, when the eye is attracted by something dancing up and down among the brushwood close to it. It is an oblong framework, partially covered with dirty gray canvas, which has commenced to make sundry abortive little swoops up into the air, ending in abrupt dives down again to earth. Finally this weird kite—for kite it is—makes up its mind and sails steadily upward to the tune of its whining cable-drum. Up, up it goes, holding well in the strong breeze till it becomes a mere speck in the sky. ”

“ At Blue Hill we find that the kites in a wind that blows 10 miles an hour lift about two ounces for each square foot of surface; in a 25-mile wind they lifted about a pound for each square foot; and in a 40-mile wind, nearly three pounds for each square foot.
FIG. 1.
The recent interest in kites has brought about a great improvement in their forms. The Malays discovered that a diamond-shaped kite constructed with two sticks could be made steady in the wind, and could fly without a tail if the cross-sticks were bent backward and tied with a cord so as to hold them in the shape of a bow. ”

“ Once a common species in the British Islands, it is now reduced to a miserable remnant, composed of a few breeding pairs in Wales and Scotland.
Among the various types of diurnal birds of prey, the kite is one of the finest; the great extent of his sharp-pointed wings and his long, forked tail, fit him for an aërial life. In appearance he is a swallow-shaped eagle; and few birds equal him in grace and majesty of motion when he soars at a vast height. Like the eagles, buzzards, and other strong-fliers among the raptors, he soars for exercise and recreation ”

“ It was the most tiresome kite in the world, always wagging its tail, shaking its ears, breaking its string, sitting down on the tops of houses, getting stuck in trees, entangled in hedges, flopping down on ponds, or lying flat on the grass, and refusing to rise higher than a yard from the ground. ”

“ Hundreds of kites dwell at every hill-station. They spend the greater part of the day on the wing, either sailing gracefully in circles high overhead or gliding on outstretched pinions over mountain and valley, with head pointing downwards, looking for the refuse on which they feed. To mistake a kite is impossible. Throughout the day it makes the welkin ring with its querulous chee-hee-hee-hee-hee. Some kites are larger than others, consequently ornithologists, who are never so happy as when splitting up species, have made a separate species of the larger race. ”

“ Even the kite is not more graceful in its flight. The sudden turning in his onward course—the momentary pause to fix more accurately the position of his prey—the arrow-like descent—the plunge—the white spray dancing upward, and then the hiatus occasioned by the total disappearance of the winged thunderbolt, until the white object starts forth again above the blue surface—all these points are incomparable to behold. ”

“ The origin of kite-flying seems to lie somewhere in southeast Asia, where it is a sport even of grown-up men, who fight their kites by making them cut one another's strings, and fly birds and monsters of the most fantastic shapes and colors, especially in China, where old gentlemen may be seen taking their evening stroll, kite-string in hand, as though they were leading pet dogs. The English boy's kite appears thus an instance, not of spontaneous play-instinct, but of the migration of an artificial game from a distant center. ”

“ A Chinese boy had a colored paper ball about 8” in diameter attached by a string to one of the kites last year, Fig. 20. Another form is the intersected cardboard discs, Fig. 21. Other forms can be used.
Christmas and other paper rope used for decoration purposes could be used to advantage for tails of kites. They will catch the breeze and can be festooned into pretty designs but will need cord supports to give strength.
Don’t throw away a kite because it has to have a tail. The tail is sometimes the most beautiful part. ”