58 
from Kennedy, “I ken ’em fine!” I hardly believed he could, 
for my own eyes were then far above the average, and aided by 
the best of Voightlcendevr’s field glasses, it was as much as I could 
do. Presently, methought, that the single dot in the sky, which 
I still discerned, became, instead of fainter, faintly more visible. 
“They are coming back,” quoth Kennedy ; and before long the 
spot had visibly increased, and the falconer Barr declared that 
he saw them once more. So did we, and so did all, before long, 
for the woodcock, finding herself over the water, and unable to 
shake off her pursuer, or gain the distant haven of Morven, had 
no alternative but to seek the shelter of the bracken on our 
side, from whence she sprang; so the poor fowl turned tail, and 
“went for it” in a long slanting descent from an incredible 
altitude. As they both neared us, they presented the appear- 
ance of two little balls falling out of the sky right towards us, 
and quite straight, with the difference (fatal to the poor 
woodcock) that “ Taillie,” that began below her, was now well 
above. The hawk was evidently unwilling or afraid to stoop 
over the water, but the moment the cock was over the land she 
shot herself forward, and straight in air, instead of slanting, 
half perpendicularly down, like her quarry (both moving with 
incredible speed) turned over, and stooped. No one knows the 
speed of a falcon’s stoop, but it must be very great, as I have seen 
it bring a hawk up to old grouse flying hard down wind, just as 
though they had been sitting still, with absurd ease, if only she 
be but high enough. Anyhow, it was fatal this time to the wood- 
cock, for, leaving a cloud of feathers behind, she tumbled head 
over heels before us, into the very patch of bracken she came 
from, and meeting there with an old ant hill, bounded off it, 
many a yard, and lay still. The hawk soon recovered herself, and 
dashed on to her well-earned quarry. Needless to say, I did not 
disturb her thereon, but served out the whiskey, and drank her 
health, all round. Then we, too, set to work at our lunch, 
and when this very tame pet hawk, had nearly done hers, I 
went to her and took her up, and having replaced the swivel in 
her jesses, and the leash in her swivel, and cleaned her feet, and 
wiped her beak, and kissed her, I fastened her to a stone in a 
