I40 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST, 



body of some bird which had been flayed and thrown out 

 of the window. The audacity of the Kites of India is pro- 

 verbial ; they are as bold in Egypt, and I do not doubt 

 many stories might easily be collected about them, such as 

 their snatching meat out of the poor people's hands. One 

 actually brushed the cheek of Mr. Russell in swooping 

 at a large Woiran* which the steersman had been skin- 

 ning ; but I cannot say I ever heard of their molesting 

 young Pigeons, as described by Dr. Adams (Ibis, 1864, 

 p. 10). The Lanner will do so, and, indeed, goes by 

 the name of Pigeon-Hawk in some parts. When our boom 

 was lowered to go down stream, we found a lizard sticking 

 to the top, which some Kite had left half-eaten. The top 

 of a mast is rather a favourite perch, and was so in old 

 times probably, for Wilkinson represents a boat with 

 fish hanging out to dry, and on the mast a Kite (No. 333). 

 He remarks that the manner in which it shrieks while wait- 

 ing for the entrails of the fish is very characteristically shown 

 in the original. I do not doubt that fishes, dead or alive, 

 fresh or stale, would be acceptable to any Egyptian Kite ; 

 but in the mountains, where I always noticed that they 

 were cleaner, they certainly prey largely on reptiles. I 

 have occasionally seen them flying about with such things 

 as snakes and lizards in their talons. 



I have observed them two or three times, whilst flying, to 

 deliver some food from the foot to the mouth. My father 

 was well aware of this habit, which he says is common to 

 all the Kites, and has been noticed in the Lammergeyer of 

 the Himalayas. I once saw a common Rook apparently 

 do it. 



I was never tired of watching the graceful flight of the 

 Hiddayer ; unclean as one knows it to be, there is something 

 beautiful about its slow-sailing flight, with wide-spread tail, 



** Monito)- niloticus. 



