Bible Encyclopedias
Glede

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature

Milvus Ater

Glede () is an obsolete name for the common kite. It is a species that rises to a towering height, hangs apparently motionless in the sky, and darts down with immense velocity; but the legs and claws being weak, it is cowardly, and feeds upon carrion, fish, insects, mice, and small birds. About Cairo kites are particularly abundant, mixing with the carrion vultures in their wheeling flight, and coming in numbers to the daily distribution of food awarded them. But the question whether the kite of Europe and that of Egypt are the same species, is not decided, though there is no want of scientific names for both species found in the valley of the Nile; one of which is certainly distinct from the European, and the other, if not so, is still a strongly marked variety. The bill of this species is dark; head and throat whitish, with brown streaks; body above dark gray brown, pale ferruginous below; tail but slightly forked; legs yellow. It is found in hieroglyphic paintings colored with sufficient accuracy not to be mistaken. The other species, which we figure above as Milvus ater, is the black kite. It has the head, neck, and back dark rusty gray; scapulars bordered with rusty; wing-coverts and primaries black, the last mentioned tipped with white; tail rusty gray above, white beneath; bill dark; legs yellow. The manners of both species are much the same: it is likely that they are equally abundant at Cairo, and spread into Palestine [HAWK].