124 THE HUMAN SIDE OF BIRDS 



It is possible that their first attraction to man-made 

 cities was the assured daily feast. And man, being 

 thoroughly aware of the good they do in cleaning 

 the streets, has always encouraged their presence. 

 In the early part of the fifteenth century the streets 

 of London were crowded with kites, and they were 

 ever flying around London Bridge; in the same way 

 they were regular workers on the streets of Cairo. 

 Not being satisfied in destroying the garbage of 

 the streets, they actually pecked the food out of the 

 hands of children. But those days are over, and 

 with the coming of the modern sewerage-systems, 

 the food-supply has been cut off from these feath- 

 ered street-cleaners. 



Practically all scavenger birds are members of 

 the family cormnonly known as "birds of prey"; 

 they have few claims to respectability. All the 

 buzzards are slow and sluggish in movement, and 

 are famed for the enormous amount of food they 

 can devour. In spite of their unlovely ways, how- 

 ever, they are very valuable friends of man. In 

 fact, they are the most useful of all the diurnal 

 birds of prey. Their crops are veritable game-bags 

 for numerous rats, moles, mice, insects, and other 

 destructive vermin. The amount they destroy daily 

 is incalculable. It is for this reason, aside from 



