114 OUT WITH THE BIRDS 



hawk, he goes south with the birds and returns 

 with them, and perpetrates his outrages along 

 the way. Our present villainous visitor stayed 

 but a moment, and made off before the .22 rifle 

 could be brought into action; so the pleasure of 

 sending a leaden pill through him had to be 

 postponed. 



I have seen two stern chases by this bird. He 

 has a deceiving swiftness that brings him up with 

 anything on wings and a cruel determination 

 that seems to wear down the resistance of his 

 terrified quarry. Yet in both these chases that 

 I witnessed, he failed. In the first he was after 

 a Wilson snipe. The latter was more than a 

 hundred yards in the lead, when first I noted 

 that the duck hawk was giving chase, but the 

 manner in which the pursuer cut down the 

 handicap made it appear that the snipe was 

 merely hovering. Swoop he came down like 

 a dart, but the snipe dodged him. Swoop, 

 swoop again and again he darted; and though 

 he missed, it was plain that the quarry was 

 weakening and that it was only a matter of mo- 

 ments till he must be struck by a grip of the 

 pursuer's talons. Then came an unexpected 

 climax: the snipe plummeted earthwards and 



