A MOUNT A IN’ TOP. 
83 
many crows come together and perform really graceful 
evolutions. 
Another example came before me just now, as I sat on 
this very peak, and perhaps put my mind into its present 
train of thought. Far out to sea I saw a large bird of 
prey, too dark to be a sea eagle or an osprey, going 
through a strange performance. Closing its wings at a 
great height, it dropped like a stone, as if on some doomed 
fish, but before arriving at the surface of the water, it 
turned its course so neatly that the impetus of its fall 
carried it up into the sky again. After toboganning in 
this way for some time, it made for land and came straight 
towards me, and lo ! it was Neopus malayensis, the Black 
Eagle. I never could have suspected this gentle poacher 
of going out to sea for exercise. Was it afraid of breaking 
its bones if it tried the same thing among the hills, or 
was it mocking the Sea Eagle and pretending to catch 
fish? How smoothly it sails now just over the tops of 
the trees, rounding the hill, rising or sinking, without one 
flap of its sombre wings. It is so near that my friend 
and I can see its yellow face and almost count the number 
of its quills, upturned and spread like the fingers of a hand. 
Thus we take note in silence, or dreamily chat of what 
