140 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
body of some bird which had been flayed and thrown out 
of the window. The audacity of the Kites of India is pro- 
verbial; they are as bold in Egypt, and I do not doubt 
many stories might easily be collected about them, such as 
their snatching meat out of the poor people’s hands. One 
actually brushed the cheek of Mr. Russell in swooping 
at a large Woitran* which the steersman had been skin- 
ning; but I cannot say I ever heard of their molesting 
young Pigeons, as described by Dr. Adams (Ibis, 1864, 
p. 10). The Lanner will do so, and, indeed, goes by 
the name of Pigeon-Hawk in some parts. When our boom 
was lowered to go down stream, we found a lizard sticking 
to the top, which some Kite had left half-eaten. The top 
of a mast is rather a favourite perch, and was so in old 
times probably, for Wilkinson represents a boat with 
fish hanging out to dry, and on the mast a Kite (No. 333). 
He remarks that the manner in which it shrieks while wait- 
ing for the entrails of the fish is very characteristically shown 
in the original. Ido not doubt that fishes, dead or alive, 
fresh or stale, would be acceptable to any Egyptian Kite; 
but in the mountains, where I always noticed that they 
were cleaner, they cértainly prey largely on reptiles. I 
have occasionally seen them flying about with such things 
as snakes and lizards in their talons. 
I have observed them two or three times, whilst flying, to 
deliver some food from the foot to the mouth. My father 
was well aware of this habit, which he says is common to 
all the Kites, and has been noticed in the Lammergeyer of 
the Himalayas. I once saw a common Rook apparently 
do it. 
I was never tired of watching the graceful flight of the 
Ffiddayer ; unclean as one knows it to be, there is something 
beautiful about its slow-sailing flight, with wide-spread tail, 
© Monitor niloticus. 
