DARING OF INDIAN KITES. 347 



bird, and making off with the same, even before it 

 has fallen to the ground." * 



Speaking of kites in India, Captain Lugard in his 

 recent work shows that when a man has caught and 

 cooked his dinner, unless he looks sharp after it, he 

 is not even then altogether secure from the visits of 

 uninvited guests: 



"A friend and I (he says) had been shooting. We (sat 

 and) faced each other, on two campstools. A narrow box 

 served as table between. He had seized his knife and fork 

 and was about to plunge it into the bacon (from a tin that 

 had just been opened), when a blow from the wing of one 

 of the kites across his shoulders almost upset him, and he 

 recovered his balance to find our piece of bacon far up in 

 the blue vault of heaven, and the kite discussing our break- 

 fast in our stead." f Captain Lugard then relates the story 

 of an amusing, but cruel device used by Indian children to 

 pay off these daring intruders, somewhat in their own coin. 

 " Indian urchins (he says) delight to tie bits of meat to the 

 opposite ends of a string. A kite seizes the bait, and sails 

 aloft with it, pursued by a rival claimant. No. 2, seeing the 

 other piece, swallows it. Thereupon follows the tableau which 

 pleases the Indian urchin." 



Great numbers of these birds are generally to be seen 

 about Indian villages and bazaars, where they are always 

 on the watch to snap up every morsel of food that 

 is not actually watched by the owner. When markets 

 are over they, and the common grey carrion crow, 

 will pounce into the meat stalls and whip off in an 



* Indian Game from Quail to Tiger, by W. Rice, edit. 1884, p. 3. 

 \ The Rise of our East African Empire, by Captain F. D. Lugard, 

 1893, Vol. i, p. 276. 

 Ibid., Vol. i., p. 247. 



