THE TRAPPER TRAPPED. 303 



momentary immersion in the briny blue was probably, nay certainly, 

 what the merlin would have avoided if it could. It happened in 

 this wise : We were engaged on the beach painting our boat there 

 are few things but we can put our hand to with more or less 

 success, always barring shooting, of our deficiency in which we 

 recently made full and honest confession when we suddenly heard 

 that curious and indescribable half-scream, half -cheep, so well- 

 known to the ornithologist, and which tells him so plainly that the 

 utterer is a bird usually a small bird in dire distress, in con- 

 stant fear and danger of its life. Looking round, we saw a merlin 

 in hot chase of a sandpiper (Tringa hypoleucus), pursuer and 

 pursued circling and wheeling in their arrow-like flight over the 

 bent some hundred yards from the margin of the sea. Were it not 

 for the manifest distress of the poor sandpiper, evidenced by its 

 frequent scream, as if invoking all the kindly powers of heaven and 

 earth to its aid, we should have considered it a most beautiful and 

 interesting sight. The merlin was evidently hungry and in earnest, 

 and we made no doubt at all, for there was no possible way that 

 we could aid it, that the sandpiper was distined to be the fiery 

 little falcon's evening meal. But Diis aliter visum the gods had 

 otherwise ordered it. All of a sudden it seemed to occur to the 

 Tringa that if there was the slightest chance of escape for it, it 

 must be in closer relationship with its favourite and familiar 

 element, the sea ; and to the sea accordingly in one rapid dart the 

 poor bird betook itself. The merlin, as if aware that there was 

 now at least a possibility that its prey might after all escape its 

 clutches, made a magnificent dash after, and just as the sandpiper 

 was over the sea, reached it, and pounced to strike, but missed ; by 

 the smallest fraction of a single second, a sharp zig-zag in the 

 Tringa's flight kept it clear of the stroke, and the merlin, by the 

 force and impetus of its flight, plunged head over ears into the 

 sea, whence, with draggled plumage and brine-blinded eyes, it arose 



