ao ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



from rats and owls and black and yellow opossums 

 and other subtle enemies who would come presently 

 on the scene. I hunted him from the first tree on to 

 the next, then to another, until I had driven him out 

 of the plantation to an open place, where he fluttered 

 over the surface until he came to the bank of the huge 

 ditch or foss, about twelve feet deep and half as wide 

 as the Regent's Park canal. He would drop into it, I 

 thought, and I would then be able to capture him; 

 but after a moment's rest on the bank he rose and 

 succeeded in flying across, pitching on the other 

 side. "Now I have him!" I exclaimed, and, getting 

 over the foss, I was quickly in hot pursuit after him; 

 for outside the foss the earth spread out level and 

 treeless, with nothing but grass and giant thistles 

 growing on it. But his wings were now getting stronger 

 with exercise, and he led me on and on for about a 

 mile, then disappeared in a clump of giant thistles, 

 growing on a warren or village of the vizcachas — 

 the vizcacha being a big rodent that lives in com- 

 munities in a dozen or twenty huge burrows, their 

 mouths placed close together. He had escaped down 

 one of these holes, and I waited in vain for him to 

 come out, and in the end was compelled to go home 

 without him. 



I don't know if I slept that night, but I was up 

 and out an hour before sunrise, and, taking the cage, 

 set out to look for him, with little hope of finding 

 him, for there were foxes in that place — a family of 

 cubs which I had seen — and, worse still, the large 

 blood-thirsty black weasels of that country. But no 



