278 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



for its carrion. For hours daily it must maintain 

 itself aloft, and it has learned to do so with the 

 minimum of effort. By no other motion but that of 

 circling can it take from the wind at every quarter, for 

 the wind to windward gives it height and to leeward 

 gives it speed, and this leeward speed is again 

 converted into windward height. 



I do not pretend that this explains the whole 

 mechanism by which the birds of prey sail with such 

 freedom through the air. But I see no necessity to 

 postulate ascending air-currents or to seek for a 

 solution in hypothetical forces. The streaming winds, 

 whose power we see on every side, is to me a sufficient 

 cause to explain the rising circles of a bird. 



The grandeur of the Himalaya is vivified and 

 ennobled by the vultures proudly sailing above its 

 peaks. Their great strength and the majesty of their 

 circles is in harmony with the rugged scene, and as 

 in passive silence they rise and fall, displaying their 

 conquest of the hidden powers of Nature, they call to 

 mind those other invisible forces that shape the peaks 

 and hew the gorges and govern the rise and fall of 

 ranges. 



