SCAVENGERS AND FRIENDS 347 



mensal of man, since it lives chiefly on refuse from 

 his food, makes its nest frequently on his buildings, 

 and lines the said nest with rags if it can get them ; 

 and it is well known that the Red Kite (Milvus 

 regalis) of Europe did the same here, until sanita- 

 tion and the absence of garbage reduced it to a 

 poultry-yard pest, and there was instituted a per- 

 secution of it which has nearly exterminated it in 

 our islands. 



Scattered here and there about the world there 

 are many such house-haunting species of birds, be- 

 longing to widely different groups ; commensals or 

 beneficial allies rather than true parasites, since 

 they generally pay for their lodging by services as 

 scavengers or destroyers of pests. The feeling 

 towards these varies from toleration, as in the case 

 of carrion-birds like the Kites, the small Vultures 

 of the Egyptian Vulture type (Neophron) and the 

 Turkey-Buzzards and Black Vulture of the American 

 Vulture-family (Catbartidce), to positive affection 

 such as is shown for the White Stork in Europe 

 and Asia Minor, Abdim's Stork in Africa (Abdimia 

 abdimii), and the Swallows everywhere, which 

 really have a great deal for which to thank man- 

 kind, on whose homes they commonly prefer to 

 build, abandoning in most districts their natural 

 breeding-sites on cliffs or hollow trees. 



Sparrows also, in spite of their pilferings, are 

 befriended on the whole, and the common Pigeon is 

 universally beloved, by Christians, Mohammedans, 

 and Buddhists, and was probably not deliberately 



