68 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



commonly supposed. Hawks, for instance, are fast- 

 er. Once, on the prairie, I saw a mallard singled 

 out of a flock, fairly overtaken, and struck down, 

 by a large, light-colored hawk, which I supposed 

 to be a lanner, or at any rate one of the long- 

 winged falcons ; and I saw a duck hawk, on the coast 

 of Long Island, perform a similar feat with the 

 swift-flying long- tailed duck the old squaw, or 

 sou'-sou'-southerly, of the baymen. A more curi- 

 ous instance was related to me by a friend. He was 

 out along a river, shooting ducks as they flew by 

 him, and had noticed a bald eagle perched on the 

 top of a dead tree some distance from him. While 

 looking at it a little bunch of teal flew swiftly by, 

 and to his astonishment the eagle made after them. 

 The little ducks went along like bullets, their wings 

 working so fast that they whistled; flop, flop came 

 the great eagle after them, with labored-looking 

 flight; and yet he actually gained so rapidly on his 

 seemingly fleeter quarry that he was almost up to 

 them when opposite my friend. Then the five teal 

 went down headlong into the water, diving like so 

 many shot. The eagle kept hovering over the spot, 

 thrusting with its claws at each little duck as it 

 came up; but he was unsuccessful, all of the teal 

 eventually getting into the reeds, where they were 

 safe. In the East, by the way, I have seen the 

 same trick of hovering over the water where a flock 

 of ducks had disappeared, performed by a Cooper's 

 hawk. He had swooped at some nearly grown flap- 

 pers of the black duck; they all went under water, 



