"Down, rapid as an arrow, from heaven descends the Osprey, the roar of its wings reaching the ear as it disappears in the water, making the surges foam around! At this moment the eager looks of the eagle are all ardour, and, levelling his neck for flight, he sees the Osprey once more emerge, struggling with his prey, and mounting in the air with screams of exultation. "These are the signals for the eagle, who, launching into the air, instantly gives chase, and soon gains on the Osprey; each exerts his utmost to mount above the other, displaying in this encounter the most elegant and sublime aërial evolutions. [Illustration: SNATCHED FROM THE DEEP: THE OSPREY RISES WITH HIS PREY.] "The unencumbered eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the point of reaching his opponent, when, with a sudden scream, probably of despair and honest execration, the Osprey drops his fish. "The eagle, poising himself for a moment, as if to take a more certain aim, descends like a whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten booty silently away to the woods." Although not very plentiful in Palestine, nor indeed in any other country, the Osprey is seen throughout the whole of that country where it can find a sufficiency of water. It prefers the sea-shore and the rivers of the coast, and is said to avoid the Sea of Galilee. THE KITE, OR VULTURE OF SCRIPTURE. The word _Dayah_ and its signification--Dayah a collective term for different species of Kites--The Common or Red Kite plentiful in Palestine--Its piercing sight and habit of soaring--The Black Kite of Palestine and its habits--The Egyptian Kite--The Raah or Glede of Scripture--The Buzzards and their habits--The Peregrine Falcon an inhabitant of Central Palestine, and the Lanner of the eastern parts of the country. In Lev. xi. 14 and Deut. xiv. 13, we find the Vulture among the list of birds which the Jews were not permitted to eat. The word which is translated as Vulture is _dayah_, and we find it occurring again in Isaiah xxxiv. 15, "There shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate." There is no doubt, however, that this translation of the word is an incorrect one, and that it ought to be rendered as Kite. In Job xxviii. 7, there is a similar word, _ayah_, which is also translated as Vulture, and which is acknowledged to be not a Vulture, but one of the Kites: "There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen." Both these words are nearly identical with modern Arabic terms which are employed rather loosely to signify several species of Kite. Buxtorf, in his Hebrew Lexicon, gives the correct rendering, translating _dayah_ as _Milvus_, and the Vulgate in one or two places gives the same translation, though in others it renders the word as Vulture.