THE KITE. 35 



The condor does not trouble to make a nest, but chooses a hollow in the 

 cliff, where the mother bird lays her eggs. Both parents devote themselves 

 to the young ones, and feed them with the utmost care and attention. The 

 young birds grow very slowly, but at the end of six weeks they begin to 

 flutter round their parents. After a few months they fly off to seek their 

 own fortune. 



The condor is a handsome bird. His shining black feathers are two feet 

 in length. His bill is very thick, and the point hooks downwards ; it is white 

 at the tip, and the other part is a jet black. A short down covers the head ; 

 and the feathers on the breast, neck, and wings arc of a light brown. 



THE KITE. 



Have you ever, on a summer's day, seen a bird gliding about in a circle, with 

 outspread wings and extended tail t 



His way of flying was like that of the eagle, and yet he was a much 

 smaller bird. Sometimes he balanced himself in the air, and ceased to move, 

 but hung suspended, as it were, on nothing. Then, while you were still 

 looking, he glided downwards to the ground. 



While poised in the air, his keen eye had been fixed on some object 

 below ; for he seeks his food on the ground, and is very quick at spying it 

 out. Lizards, frogs, mice, and even young birds, fall into his clutches : 

 nothing comes amiss to the kite. He is a bird of prey as much as the eagle, 

 only that he has not the strength or the bravery of the king of the birds ; and 

 he descends to acts of theft and violence, like the whole of the tribe, great 

 or small. He is often hovering over the farmyard, and if the hen does not 

 take care of her chickens, he is pretty certain to carry some of them off. 



But he is a sad coward ; and if the hen sees him, and comes rushing out, 

 as she always does under the circumstances, looking angry and excited, and 

 with her feathers ruffled, he never attempts to withstand her. He would do 

 anything rather than fight, and she drives him away as easily as possible, 

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