158 OUT WITH THE BIRDS 



for pike. For an unsuspecting duck mother to 

 lead her train of downy dependents across the 

 perilous passage was the most natural thing in 

 the world ; and for a big voracious pike to follow 

 in her wake and seize her tiny peepers and gulp 

 them down, one, two, three, was quite as nat- 

 ural for him. I never really witnessed such a 

 tragedy, but it requires only a slight play of the 

 imagination to see the swirl of the water as the 

 fish strikes, the hurrying mother leading her pat- 

 tering young; or perhaps turning back and flap- 

 ping and beating around on the surface of the 

 water, while the youngsters scurry for the 

 rushes. 



This time-worn game of setting up a counter 

 excitement, which she works on the hawk and 

 other foes, would seem to be her only defense 

 against this foe of the water. However, her suc- 

 cess or failure at the game may be judged some- 

 what from a post-mortem examination of the 

 stomachs of two pike caught here previously. 

 One rascal had in his maw three young ducks all 

 of the same size and species, and evidently 

 snapped from the same brood; the other held a 

 single but much larger duckling, so bulky, in 

 fact, that it must have given the murderer a hard 



