and the bird easily escaped. In the end he 
became very much annoyed, for he knew that 
the guide was laughing behind his back, and 
furthermore he disliked to rejoin his friends at 
the club without a single bird. 
At last fortune favored him, for at the sound 
of his gun a snipe folded its wings and dropped 
into the marsh. With some pride he strode for- 
ward to get it, when quick as a flash something 
shot over his head from behind, dropped where 
the snipe had fallen, and quickly made off with it. 
“That’s Black Warrior,’ yelled the guide. 
“Shoot quick!”? The sportsman fired, but the 
bird with the snipe kept on going. The whole | 
incident happened so quickly that he did not 
get a good look at the robber. He could see 
that it was a hawk with very dark plumage 
above and light beneath, and that it moved with 
astonishing swiftness. 
As they tramped back to the club-house the 
guide told him that the bird was a duck hawk 
and that it had been staying around the hunting 
grounds all autumn, giving the gunners no end 
of trouble. 
154 
