258 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



quick time in the desert ; at the turning of his neck, 

 the body being yet still, our heart ceased to beat 

 altogether and we grew sick with hope when near 

 enough to see the wild beauty of his eye. Unfolded, 

 like a thought, was then the brown silence of the shy 

 creature's ample wings, and with a warning cry he 

 wheeled away upon the wind, unharmed by our in- 

 effectual hail, seen falling far short of the deceptive 

 distance, while his mate, that had lain couched 

 perhaps in her nest of eggs or young, exposed yet 

 hidden within killing range, half running, half flying, 

 flapped herself into flight, simulating lame leg and 

 wounded wing ; and the two disappearing together 

 behind the hills, left us in our vain reason thwarted 

 by instinct, to resume with live hopes, rising out of 

 the ashes of the dead, our daily disappointed quest 

 over the houseless mosses. Yet now and then to 

 our steady aim the bill of the ' Whaup ' disgorged 

 blood, and as we felt the feathers in our hand, and 

 from tip to tip felt the outstretched wings, fortune, 

 we felt, had no better boon to bestow, earth no 

 greater triumph." Who has not at one time or 

 other experienced feelings such as these, and lacked 

 the power of words to describe them ? 



