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not a swift or fierce hawk. But at a sudden 

 sweep and pick-up he is unrivalled, and his 

 feats in this way are something astonishing. 

 He is always on the look-out for scraps, and 

 has learnt to eat bread and cooked food of 

 any sort as well as meat, so that nothing eat- 

 able is safe if kites are in a position to make 

 a swoop. The position they need is room to 

 pass at a rush without drawing in their yard- 

 wide wings ; then, if the person who has the 

 eatables happens to look another way, the 

 rush is pretty certain to come, and very 

 startling it is. As the kite only needs to 

 guess at the chance of food, he will strike at 

 anything wrapped up in paper, and I have 

 even once had a cup of tea knocked away from 

 my very lips as I was drinking it on the 

 verandah, and never even saw the kite that 

 did it, only felt a light switch from his wings 

 on my nose. The reason why kites manage 

 this kind of robbery so securely is that, like 

 other hawks, they seize and carry off anything 

 with their claws, and do not have to check 

 an instant to seize with their beak, as a gull 

 has to do; and so, after one has watched 

 kites, gulls, graceful and clever as they are, 



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