KITES OF THE SEA 105 



to one particular kind of food — the bodies of dead 

 animals. Of such are the vultures. In the pohty of 

 the feathered folk might is right, so that these great 

 birds enjoy the prerogative of picking and choosing 

 their food. The lesser fry have to be content with that 

 which the vultures do not require, with the crumbs 

 that fall from the vulturine table ; they are ready to 

 devour " anything that is going." All is grist that 

 comes to their mill. 



The kites and gulls are the chieftains of the clan of 

 general scavengers. The sway of the former extends 

 over the land : the latter have dominion over the seas. 

 Kites cannot swim ; their operations are in conse- 

 quence necessarily confined to the land, and to water 

 in the neighbourhood of terra firma. Sea-gulls, on the 

 other hand, are as buoyant as corks, and have webbed 

 feet ; they are, further, no mean swimmers, and are 

 eminently adapted to a seafaring hfe. They are birds 

 of powerful flight, and almost as much at home on land 

 as at sea. They confine their attention mainly to the 

 sea, not because they are compelled by their structure 

 to do so, but because they encounter less opposition 

 there. 



Among birds, similarity in feeding habits often 

 engenders similarity in appearance — a professional 

 hkeness grows up among those that pursue the same 

 calling. The Hkeness between swifts and swallows is 

 a remarkable instance of this. The separate sphere 

 of influence occupied by kites and gulls sufficiently 

 explains the dissimihtude of their plumage. In nearly 

 all other respects the birds closely resemble one another. 



