102 Mr. B. Alexander — Expedition 



far from their eyries. Their plaintive cries, capable of 

 being heard at a considerable distance, often deceived us as 

 to their actual whereabouts. Here, over this open plain, 

 studded thickly with brown fragments of volcanic stone, 

 several Kites wheeled in a lazy fashion, their distinct shadows 

 playing round a batch of Ravens {Corvus umhrinus) that 

 strutted to and fro in a contented manner, busy catching 

 the unwary locust before it could bounce to another stone. 

 Amid this black assemblage. Vultures crouched upon the 

 largest boulders, looking pictures of laziness. 



Presently we overtook a native boy, who conducted us 

 to the foot of a precipitous hill about ninety feet in height. 

 Towards its inaccessible summit the surface is seared and 

 greatly broken. On two of the ledges, some thirty feet apart, 

 were a couple of Osprey^s nests that looked from where we 

 stood like huge balls of coarse twine. Now and again, faint 

 cries of the occupants within would reach our ears, and, 

 looking seaward, we saw the male bird pursuing a straight 

 course some twenty feet above the water, beyond the breakers. 

 Suddenly he desisted in his flight, and for a few brief 

 moments hung poised above the water ; then his head was 

 lowered, the legs dropped ready to seize and clasp the prey, but 

 the next moment they were sharply drawn up again, and the 

 bird flew on in search of better food. Another opportunity 

 soon came, and of this the bird took full ad\a,ntage. Turn- 

 ing obliquely from his course, he sped downwards and was 

 hidden for the instant in a cloud of spray. Then, with a flap, 

 he freed himself from the water, mounted above the cliffs, 

 and flew straight to his mate, who sat upon a boulder of 

 rock patiently awaiting his return. Possessed of the food, 

 she then commenced to wing her way upwards to her nest. 

 Her movements were full of symmetry and grace; no beat of 

 pinions was visible as she ascended higher and higher in 

 spiral circles. On n earing her off'spring, a string of plaintive 

 calls burst from her, calls that seemed to be saying " I'm 

 coming, Tm coming, Fm coming.''' In the meantime the 

 male had once more returned to the shore-line, where his 

 form soon became swallowed up in the bright haze, while the 



