THE KITE 185 
This happens mostly when the scavenger has dined 
well, rather than wisely. This, I regret to have to 
say, happens whenever the opportunity presents itself. 
Having gorged himself to bursting point, the kite likes 
to sit on the ground and meditate. A couple of crows 
then appear on the scene; one settles in front of the kite 
and the other behind him. The posteriorly situated 
crow then makes an attack @ ¢ergo. The kite turns 
savagely on the aggressor. This is the opportunity for 
which the front crow has been waiting ; he attempts to 
remove one or more of the glead’s tail feathers. After 
a little the irate scavenger flies off, amid corvine jeers. 
Kites can scarcely be called birds of prey. They 
usually aim at more humble game. They are content 
to live on refuse. It is not that they do not like nice 
fresh meat; far from it. There is nothing that a kite 
enjoys so much as a tender little bird; but, before you 
can eat your hare, you have to catch him, and kites are 
lazy and cowardly. They choose the line of least re- 
sistance, and that is to pick up dead matter. 
However, if a sickly little bird or a feeble nestling © 
presents itself, the kite “makes no bones” about carry- 
ing it off Sometimes the kite, in spite of the vigilance 
of the parents, manages to carry off a young crow. It 
he can get away before the parents discover what has 
happened, all goes well so far as the kite is concerned ; 
but if the crows catch him red-handed, it is the very 
dickens! 
Not many days ago the conversation of a choto haziri 
party, at which I was present, was interrupted by a 
great commotion overhead in a tree, and, looking up, 
