158 THE BIRD WATCHER 
last, got back to the boggs, where it lay for some time 
in a seemingly exhausted condition. Dr. Bowdler 
Sharpe, in his gossipy work, The Wonders of Bird Life, 
describes how, in modern falconry, he has seen a rook 
dodge, time after time, with the same success, till he 
at last reached the wood for which he had been 
making; and here, I think, the falcon was also a 
peregrine. For myself, therefore, I do not believe 
that this bird is a greater adept than others of the 
class to which he belongs, nor do I see why he 
should be. All have to live by overcoming in speed 
and agility birds whose speed and agility has been 
gained in direct relation to themselves, from which it 
should follow that the hunter and the hunted ought 
to fail and succeed about as often as each other. 
There is probably no bird of prey that pigeons 
have not a fair chance of foiling. I have seen some 
wild ones that lived amongst the rocky precipices of 
a hill overlooking Srinagar foil a pair of eagles many 
times in succession, and I do not think one of them 
had been caught when I went away. The great down- 
ward rushes of these eagles, or rather the tremendous 
rushing sound that they made—for I only seem to 
remember them as swift, storm-like shadows on the 
air—as also the marvels of speed and quick turning 
exhibited by the pigeons, and their dreadful fear— 
expressed sometimes vocally if I mistake not'’—I shall 
never, to the end of life, forget. In effecting their 
1 That peculiar coo of terror which anyone may hear who enters any place 
where dove-cot pigeons are kept, and approaches their boxes closely. 
