KITES 13 



evening, arrived very late, and excused himself on 

 the very sufficient ground that, shortly after he had 

 driven out of his own garden, resplendent in all 

 the glory of a fresh suit of flannels, and was 

 traversing a street near a large bazaar of butchers' 

 shops, a kite, flying about overhead, dropped a 

 huge mass of putrid offal into his lap with results 

 demanding immediate return home and change of 

 attire. 



They are seemingly rather stupid birds, judging 

 by the frequent difficulties that they get into in 

 building and the ease with which they are outwitted 

 by crows. It can hardly call for much mental effort 

 to construct the heaps of sticks that satisfy them as 

 nests, but the work seems to tax their intellects to 

 the utmost, and they are often to be seen obstinately 

 trying to utilise sticks that, either from size or form, 

 are hopelessly unsuited to the end in view. Even 

 after the difficulties of building have been overcome 

 they are sometimes subject to strange delusions. A 

 kite sat patiently for many days in the vain hope 

 of hatching out a pill-box that it had secured from 

 a terraced roof overlooked by the rooms occupied by 

 a hypochondriacal member of the United Service 

 Club in Calcutta. In obtaining their food, too, 

 they show no craft, but depend entirely on force 

 and courage, and they very often lose the fruits 

 of these, owing to imprudence and folly. One 

 would have been disposed to think that a long 



