on the story of a Black Kite.



297



I must own that my first impulse was to refuse them, though

fifty centimes apiece could not be called a high price, for they looked

the most unprepossessing and deplorable objects imaginable. About

the bigness of barn-door fowls and still in immature plumage, dirty,

bedraggled, with tail and flight feathers broken to mere stumps, what

would be said at home when I sprung them on my family ? My

acquaintance with hawks was of the slightest; milan royal sounded

merely ludicrous when applied to these scarecrows, and conveyed

nothing to me.


But the butcher-boy was urgent and persistent; doubtless his

'pourboire was at stake, and his orders were to get rid of the birds

somehow. He vowed that if I did not take pity on them their

death-warrant was signed, that they were gentitles, and would be jolies

betes when more soignees (they were far from being one or the other

at that moment!), and at last I yielded, with many misgivings.


Accordingly, they and I started on our journey a week later.

They were packed in a hamper, and I had also eight green tree

frogs, two Pyrenean wasps with their nests, various caterpillars, and

a praying mantis. The people on the platform glared and scowled

at me, for it was the time of the Boer War when the English were

unpopular in France; but this had its advantages, as I was left in

sole possession of a compartment until just before the train started,

when a lady with a small lap-dog took one of the vacant seats.


That was a memorable night! The weather was very hot,

and soon the tree-frogs began to croak ; this set the dog off, and he

barked incessantly, while the hawks screamed and fought in their

hamper. My fellow-passenger and I perforce made a compact that

if I did not complain of her dog she would turn a deaf ear to my

creatures, but it was not surprising that we kept the compartment

to ourselves all the way to Paris. By this time I had made up my

mind that two hawks were more than I could endure, so to the Jardin

des Plantes I went as soon as I thought it would be open, and

handed over one screamer to the keeper of the birds, who seemed

quite pleased to have it. The remaining bird calmed down, and the

rest of the journey was performed in silence.


I will pass over the reception my people gave us, merely

remarking that their comments were exactly what I had anticipated.



