122 THE OUTLAW 



caused the mischief among his longtails and 

 duck. It was a big hawk of a kind never 

 seen before. So swiftly had it come that 

 the fowl was decapitated by those dagger 

 spikes on the hind claw of the raider's 

 feet. 



One day a journalist was walking in a 

 meadow. The meadow was near to a copse 

 containing a dozen tall elm trees. In the 

 elms were nearly a hundred black patches 

 a colony of rooks at their old nests. The 

 rookery had been deserted in June, when 

 old and young birds took to the fields and 

 made local migrations. 



That morning a mist had lain in the 

 meadow and the rooks had known that it 

 was time to return to the colony. 



As the journalist, happy in the October 

 sunshine, passed near the rookery, he was 

 surprised to see the whole flock some 

 hundreds of birds rise with harsh im- 

 perative cries into the air. The beating of 



