308 THE DIPPER 



male dipper darted away straight for the shelter of an overhanging 

 bank, but the female, instead of following his example, remained 

 motionless, gazing, as if fascinated, at the bold dark enemy overhead. 

 Suddenly the hawk swooped, with a single beat of its powerful wings, 

 but just in time the dipper flung herself off the boulder. Uttering a 

 short sharp cry, with head thrown back, she made for the open 

 country. This gave her cruel pursuer the advantage, and it again 

 prepared to swoop ; the dipper saw the movement, and doubled with 

 extraordinary swiftness. So interested was I in the contest, that I 

 half raised myself from the tangle of brushwood among which I had 

 hidden on first perceiving the birds, and saw the other dipper close 

 beside me ; he, entirely forgetting his own danger, was frantically 

 calling to his companion in plaintive, long-drawn notes, and flying 

 wildly from bush to bank and back again. The hen was evidently 

 bewildered by the hawk's pursuit, for she never attempted to gain the 

 shelter of a shrub, but kept scudding up and down over the surface 

 of the water. But she was beginning to get tired, and no longer 

 doubled with the same precision and swiftness, while the bird 

 overhead floated to and fro, flapping its great wings quietly, almost 

 lazily, watching its victim with wide-open eye, but not seeming to exert 

 itself in the least. Seeing this, I thought it was time to interfere, 

 and was about to do so, when a strange thing happened : quite 

 suddenly, and without hesitation, the male dipper shot out from 

 the bank straight under the hawk, which swerved aside as if to 

 swoop, thus giving the female a chance of escape. Unfortunately, 

 the keen-witted hawk had no intention of pursuing the second bird 

 and allowing the first, who was already tired, to escape. Giving 

 three or four quick beats of its broad wings, it dashed down towards 

 the water with frightful swiftness, and, in spite of the agonised flutters 

 of the kind little mate, would have caught its prey had not a missile 

 intervened. Starting up from the ground, I seized a stick and threw 

 it at the hawk, at the same time shouting and waving my arm. This 

 had the desired effect ; the hawk swept up, paused a moment in 



