here are several species in this place; but the
largest of them could not carry anything over the cliff heavier than a
string of twine. See, there's a brace of them now!" continued Karl,
pointing to two birds that were circling in the air, some twenty yards
overhead. "`Churk' falcons they are called. They are the largest of
the Himalayan hawks. Are these your birds, brother?"

"A couple of kites, are they not?" interrogated Caspar, turning his eyes
upward, and regarding the two winged creatures circling above, and
quartering the air as if in search of prey.

"Yes," answered the naturalist, "they are of that species; and,
correctly described, of the same genus as the eagles. You don't mean
them, I suppose?"

"No--not exactly," replied Caspar, in a drawling tone, and smiling
significantly as he spoke; "but if they be _kites_--Ho! what now?"
exclaimed the speaker, his train of thought, as well as speech, suddenly
interrupted by a movement on the part of the falcons. "What the
mischief are the birds about? As I live, they seem to be making an
attack upon Fritz! Surely they don't suppose they have the strength to
do any damage to our brave old dog?"

As Caspar spoke, the two falcons were seen suddenly to descend--from the
elevation at which they had been soaring--and then sweep in quick short
circles around the head of the Bavarian boar-hound--where he squatted on
the ground, near a little copse, some twenty yards from the hut.

"Perhaps their nest is there--in the copse?" suggested Karl; "That's why
they are angry with the dog: for angry they certainly appear to be."

So any one might have reasoned, from the behaviour of the birds, as they
continued their attack upon the dog--now rising some feet above him, and
then darting downward in a sort of parabolic curve--at each swoop
drawing nearer and nearer, until the tips of their wings were almost
flapped in his face. These movements were not made in silence: for the
falcons, as they flew, kept uttering their shrill cries--that sounded
like the voice of a pair of angry vixens.

"Their young must be near?" suggested Karl.

"No, sahib," said Ossaroo, "no nest--no chickee. Fritz he hab suppa--de
piece ob meat ob da ibex. Churk wantee take de dog suppa away."

"Oh! Fritz is eating something, is he?" said Caspar. "That explains it
then. How very stupid of these birds, to fancy they could steal his
supper from our valiant Fritz: more especially since he seems t