BIEDS OF PREY. 49 



pursued by a merlin. On coming over a ridge 

 which had concealed the birds from our view, 

 the merhn rose from the heather; and on going 

 to' the spot we picked up the grouse, whiclx 

 died in our hands. This grouse weighed 24 oz. 

 The skin was not broken, but she had a 

 tremendous bruise over the spine. 



On two occasions, when beating the jungles 

 in India we saw pea-fowl killed in the air 

 by hawks. They fell among the trees with 

 an unmistakable crash, like the fall of a 

 pheasant shot clean. And we know a keeper 

 who saw a heron killed in the air. It fell close 

 to him, and he picked it up before the hawk 

 descended. The grand sudden death of these 

 great birds is certainly very different to the 

 pictures one sees and the descriptions one reads 

 of the way tame hawks take herons. After 

 getting a little above them, they seem to settle 

 on then' backs (binding is, we believe, the 

 correct term), and they descend to the earth 



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