KITES 21 



and not kites, and that, in place of having "their 

 breast to the walls," as the kites have, they always 

 face directly outwards (Plate I.). He also mentions 

 that "they are said to leave Calcutta almost 

 entirely for three or four months during the rains." 

 This most assuredly is not the case. The onset of 

 the monsoon, or, indeed, of any continuous heavy 

 rainfall, is doubtless followed by their departure 

 from the town in large numbers, but their absence 

 is never of longer duration than a few weeks, and 

 is often much briefer. Whilst absent they do not 

 seem to go far afield, for any considerable pause in 

 the rainfall is at once followed by their reappearance 

 within urban limits, and, even when the weather 

 favours their continued absence from the streets, they 

 may often be seen drifting inwards high over head 

 from the surrounding country, and sailing about in 

 flocks before violent rain-squalls. In the summer 

 of 1878 an unwontedly abundant fall of rain took 

 place in May and the beginning of June, and caused 

 an exceptionally early exodus of the kites; a com- 

 paratively dry period followed, during which they 

 returned to town ; the regular monsoon rains set 

 steadily in in the early part of July, and a second 

 emigration, followed by a second return, took place. 

 The explanation of these villeggiaturas is probably 

 to be found in the fact that heavy rainfall both 

 washes the streets and so tends to diminish the 

 supply of garbage in them, and at the same time 



