188 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



its tenants are therefore more freely coloured and marked. There 

 are two colours to which it seems as if a preference were given; the 

 one is a more or less shaded straw-yellow, the other is a hardly 

 definable gray -blue. Both appear on the plumage of birds of prey 

 and game-birds alike, but without, of course, excluding other darker, 

 lighter, or more vivid colours. It seems to me worthy of note that 

 the greater freedom of colouring and marking is also observable on 

 those birds whose near relations are characteristic of the desert. 



We should like to give a more detailed description of some of 

 the steppe birds which are most distinctive of the region, but selec- 

 tion is difiicult, for almost every one of those which we have men- 

 tioned claims and merits close attention. But my limits force me 

 to a choice, and it must suffice if I select a bird of the upper air, a 

 bird of the ground, and a bird of the night, in order through them 

 to add a few touches to our general picture of the steppe. 



No one who stays for any length of time in the steppe-land can 

 fail to observe a large bird of prey, whose appearance as he flies, 

 owing to the beautiful contour of the long pointed wings and ex- 

 ceedingly short tail, mark him off from every other feathered 

 robber, whose flight moreover surpasses that of all creatures which 

 fly. High above the ground he flies, hovers, glides, tumbles, 

 flutters, dances, and throws himself headlong. As large as an 

 eagle, he expands his great wings, and remains for a moment in 

 the same position without any movement; he beats them violently, 

 raises them high above his body, twists them and whirls them; he 

 closes them and is precipitated almost to the ground; he gives a 

 few powerful strokes, and in a few minutes has ascended to 

 immeasurable heights. As he approaches the ground we see his 

 vividly contrasted colours — the velvet black of the head, neck, 

 breast, and belly, the silver white on the under surface of his wings, 

 the light chestnut-brown of his tail; he throws himself headlong, 

 and we notice the bright colour of the back resembling that of the 

 tail and a broad light band on the wings; he comes still nearer, and 

 we may perhaps detect the coral-red beak and cheeks and talons. 

 If we question one of the nomad herdsmen observant of the animal 

 life of the steppe in regard to this striking and altogether remark- 



