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Bird - Lore 



just ahead was the stretch of road most frequented by the bird. I gripped my 

 Graflex more tightly, fingered its shutter adjustments, and made certain the 

 slide was drawn — precautions usually indulged in as a matter of routine, but 

 on this occasion checked up several times over. 



"BILLY DARTED TOWARD MR. ARMSTRONG'S FEET" 



We had gone only a few yards farther when up went the cry, "There he is 

 now." And there he was, twenty-five yards up the road, his ruff extended 

 and his head lowered and jerking nervously, after the manner of a rooster 

 about to make battle with his foe. Billy took the middle of the lane and, 

 following a peculiar, sinuous course, came steadily on to meet us with reckless 

 abandon. The contrast was absurd. On the one side was a wild bird not 

 larger than a bantam, and on the other were five adult humans led by a mobile 

 mass of several thousand pounds of steel from which emanated a loud noise: 

 a feathered David and a mechanical Goliath. 



At the instant when it seemed that further advance by either side would 

 mean annihilation for the eccentric Grouse, the pilot brought his tractor to a 

 stop and descended to the ground, whereupon began one of the most remark- 

 able of exhibitions. Billy darted toward Mr. Armstrong's feet and pecked at 

 his trousers, and when Mr. Armstrong walked away the bird ran after him 

 with the greatest agility, striking with wing or beak on coming within range. 



