GIANTS AND DWARFS 91 



prey, could not fly away. When this little 

 hawk was put in a cage, and any one came 

 near, it would try to fly at their faces, instead 

 of dashing to the other side of the cage, as 

 most newly-caught birds would do. 



The late Mr. Rutledge, who was the leading 

 animal-dealer in Calcutta in my time, told me 

 that the natives say this tiny hawk will kill 

 the great Sarus Crane, which is one of the 

 biggest birds that flies, being four or five feet 

 high. They say that the falconet flies at the 

 crane while it is on the wing, fastens on to its 

 side, and gnaws its way into the big bird's 

 liver ! This sounds very incredible, but there 

 are pigmy owls as well as pigmy hawks, also 

 about the size of sparrows or not much 

 bigger, and in Chili the people tell a very 

 similar tale about one of these tiny owls and a 

 large ibis. In this case they say that the owl 

 sneaks up close to the big bird when it is on 

 the ground, and then rushes at it with a 

 shriek. The big bird lifts his wings in alarm, 

 and the owl fastens on his side, and clings to 

 him as he flies madly through the air, until he 

 falls dead to the ground. 



It seems hardly likely that these tales, 



