ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 271 



able sight to see the eagles, kites and vultures sailing 

 round the crags and buttresses without the slightest 

 motion of their wings. The birds are so massive, of 

 such vast expanse, that the sight of them gliding with 

 perfect ease through the air and, without the quiver of 

 a pinion, sweeping round the shoulder of a mountain 

 or in repeated circles rising higher into the heavens, 

 makes one wonder if the force that sustains them is 

 not indeed as marvellous as that which has raised the 

 mountains about which they soar. 



From a rocky buttress I have often watched their 

 graceful circles, sometimes for hours at a time. As 

 they sailed close around the mountain side I could 

 distinguish every feather, and if there was the slightest 

 quiver of the wing I would certainly have detected it. 

 But there was not a trace of any movement. The 

 birds were accustomed to circle hour after hour, now 

 ascending, now descending, floating about in the air 

 with outstretched motionless wings, full of such un- 

 restrained activity and with such apparent absence of 

 all effort that, in their conquest of the air, they seemed 

 to put the laws of nature at defiance. 



The Himalayan griffon, Gyps himalayensis, dis- 

 played this power of sailing through the air perhaps 

 more fully than any other bird ; but I was accustomed 

 to watch the kites, Milvus govinda, more carefully, 

 and I think the following observations are distinctly 

 applicable to their mode of flight. 



It is clear at the first glance that the kites usually 

 move in circles. For some reason this seems to be 

 essential to a sailing flight. Each circle is therefore 

 worthy of study, and as we watch more carefully we 

 soon learn that there are significant facts to be seen 



