114 OUT WITH THE BIRDS 



hawk, he goes south with the birds and returns 

 with them, and perpetrates his outrages along 

 the way. Our present villainous visitor stayed 

 but a moment, and made off before the .22 rifle 

 could be brought into action; so the pleasure of 

 sending a leaden pill through him had to be 

 postponed. 



I have seen two stern chases by this bird. He 

 has a deceiving swiftness that brings him up with 

 anything on wings and a cruel determination 

 that seems to wear down the resistance of his 

 terrified quarry. Yet in both these chases that 

 I witnessed, he failed. In the first he was after 

 a Wilson snipe. The latter was more than a 

 hundred yards in the lead, when first I noted 

 that the duck hawk was giving chase, but the 

 manner in which the pursuer cut down the 

 handicap made it appear that the snipe was 

 merely hovering. Swoop — he came down like 

 a dart, but the snipe dodged him. Swoop, 

 swoop — again and again he darted; and though 

 he missed, it was plain that the quarry was 

 weakening and that it was only a matter of mo- 

 ments till he must be struck by a grip of the 

 pursuer's talons. Then came an unexpected 

 climax: the snipe plummeted earthwards and 



