790 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV III. 



tail spreads out and the hoopoe, a past master in the art of dodging, 

 has jinked aside and the falcon dashed past. The impetus carries 

 her back to the height whence she first stooped and she is round 

 and down again, while the hoopoe is again transformed into a falling 

 stone. Thus the play goes on, but the merlin is giving up her tre- 

 mendous dashes, which carry her yards past her quarry each time 

 and contents herself by coming slower and turning quicker. Now 

 the hoopoe is fluttering up again ; the falcon makes a dash from 

 below and you think" that's got him," but no, there goes the falcon 

 past and the hoopoe is again dropping. Again they are together, a 

 twitch of the wings and the merlin and the hoopoe are yards apart. 

 At last the hoopoe is into the tree, but it's a scraggy sort of tree and 

 and affords poor protection. As the falcon dashes in after it, the 

 hoopoe dodges, gets on to another branch, puts up his crest, bobs 

 his head and gives vent to a curious noise, between a cough and a 

 hiss. At last the falcon hustles him out of the tree and chases him 

 round it, while you throw anything you can lay your hands on to keep 

 him out, but somehow, another sudden twitch, a double and the 

 hoopoe sits on the topmost twig and the falcon is twenty yards 

 beyond. Frantic at being thus outdone, she puts on all the speed 

 at her command, and that has to be seen to be appreciated. I believe 

 the flight of the peregrine and the shaheen falcons has been 

 estimated at between 100 and 150 miles an hour when stooping and 

 that of the merlin nearly 200, but how far this is correct, I am 

 unable to say. Anyway it cannot be far off the mark. 



This time she surely has the hoopoe, who sits serenely aloft, but 

 again the merlin is 30 yards the other side and the hoopoe well in 

 the middle of the tree, making himself as small as he can. 



Another bout of hide-and-seek and general post from branch to 

 branch and the hoopoe is again bustled out of the tree and this time 

 foolishly quits it altogether and makes for the next one, followed 

 by the falcon, who simply will not leave it now, and there they go, 

 zig-zag, up and down, as though they were tied to each other and the 

 falcon appears to almost touch him every time, but the hoopoe 

 still goes on somehow, and manages by a miracle to avoid those 

 talons. They are now within a foot of the ground, now up twenty 

 feet, now down again, and there she has him, as a lot of feathers fly ; 



