THE BIEDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
used to throw up pieces of meat for them to catch in falling. But 
although so tame that they would come round the tents on hearing a 
whistle, they would not eat anything in captivity, and would have died 
if they had not been set at liberty again. It was this bird which 
descended upon Mr. Browne and myself in such numbers from the upper 
regions of the air as we were riding on some extensive plains near the Depot 
in the heat of summer. There can be no doubt but that in the most elevated 
positions, where they are far out of the range of human sight, they mark 
what is passing in the plains below them.” Sturt’s account of the above 
incident is graphically given: “The morning we started to pay a visit to 
the blacks was more than usually oppressive even at daybreak, and about 9 
it blew a hot wind from the north-east. As we rode across the stony plain 
lying between us and the hills, the heated and parching blasts that came 
upon us were more than we could bear. We were in the centre of the plain 
when Mr. Browne drew my attention to a number of small black specks 
in the upper air. These spots, increasing momentarily in size, were evidently 
approaching us very rapidly. In an incredibly short time we were 
surrounded by several hundreds of the Common Kite, stooping down to 
within a few feet of us, and then turning away, after having eyed us 
steadily. Several approached us so closely that they threw themselves 
back to avoid contact, opening their beaks and spreading out their talons. 
The long flight of these birds, reaching from the ground into the heavens, 
put me strongly in mind of one of Martin’s beautiful designs, in which he 
produces the effect of distance by a multitude of objects gradually vanishing 
from the view. Whatever the reader may think, these birds had a most 
formidable aspect, and were too numerous for us to have overpowered if 
they had reaUy attacked us. That they came down to see what unusual 
object was wandering across the lonely deserts over which they soar, in 
the hope of prey, there can be no doubt ; but seeing that we were likely 
to prove formidable antagonists, they wheeled from us in extensive 
sweeps and were soon lost to view in the lofty region from whence they 
had descended.” 
Berney’s notes from the Richmond District, North Queensland, are: 
“ Next to the Crow, this is the most common bird in the district. I seem 
to have but few notes concerning them, on account, I expect, of their 
very commonness. My diary records eggs and youngsters during February 
and March. Milvus affinis is the most useful scavenger we have about 
a homestead or camp, cleaning up and carrying away all offal (and it is 
in the carrying away that it beats the Crow) or scraps, which would other- 
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