260 MR. J. H. GURNEY ON THE ORNITHOLOGY OF SWITZERLAND. 
contrary, the prey of the former is a dead dog on the shore, or some 
such animal, which it shares with the Carrion Crows. Both Kites, 
according to the Swiss, eat Frogs, of which there are plenty, 
hut probably not the unpalatable yellow-bellied Toad. The Black 
Kite, being so common, was a constant source of pleasure to my 
son and me, from the ease with which it could rise into the atmos- 
phere, and that inimitably graceful gliding flight, whence the old 
English names, “ glead ” and “ gled ” are said to be derived. Also 
from its bold daring in picking up fish or flesh close to the shore, 
dead or alive, in defiance of its natural enemy man ; and when not 
doing that, quartering the lake backwards and forwards, generally 
in couples, until sundown. Among English visitors, it commonly 
passes for a Buzzard, a much rarer Raptorial which we only saw 
once. The Black Kite has but a superficial resemblance to the 
Common Kite on the wing, being a smaller bird with far darker 
wings, and a somewhat shorter tail, less forked, and I need hardly 
say it has no resemblance at all to a Buzzard. There is a country 
where Kites and their habits can be even better studied than 
Switzerland, and where I have spent many an hour watching them, 
with glass and gun. Ko village in Egypt would be complete 
without its Hiddayer, the Arabic name of Milvus cegyptius, Gmel., 
M. parasiticus, Baud., literally, “ the father of snatchers.” This 
Arabic name, which is in universal provincial use in Egypt and in 
Palestine (Tristram, N. FI. Bible, p. 181), is evidence that the 
Hebrew words dcidh and ayydh in the Old Testament should be 
translated Kite and not Vulture, which latter is called a rackhctm 
on the Rile. There are four sorts of Vultures in Egypt, but common 
as they are the Kites are commoner, and it is most interesting to 
watch them wheeling about, and rising- into the air, up and up, by 
some inscrutable power which science cannot give a name to. In 
sultry Egypt, Kites perform the part of scavengers, and most useful 
are these feathered sanitary inspectors in clearing away what the 
native fellahin are too busy to bury or burn. When a river-boat 
is at anchor on the Kile they will pass and repass within a few feet 
attracted by any meat, or the bodies of birds which have been 
skinned by Englishmen and thrown out of the window. One 
brushed Lord de Clifford’s cheek with its wing in its eager swoop 
at a Woiran Lizzard ( Monitor niloticus ), which was in the process 
of skinning on our “ Diabeyha.” 
