MARTENS, POLECATS, WEASELS, STOATS 187 



at once, which was just what the eagle-owl intended 

 them to do, for he is perched on a limb close to the 

 place they have rushed to. Now he has a full view 

 of the pair as they sit upon their hind limbs and 

 listen, their ears cocked up and twitching. The owl 

 now crouches on his perch for one moment, his great 

 eyes blazing with the fiery excitement that he feels 

 at the sight of his expected prey. Swoop ! and he 

 has one. But that dead bough has balked him, and 

 he has the rabbit by his ears and poll, instead of that 

 fatal grip round the loins. He lifts the little animal 

 shrieking with fear off the ground however ; the 

 rabbit draws himself up bowbacked, and kicks out his 

 hardest with his hind limbs ; he will surely kick him- 

 self free. The marten thinks so, for he rushes from 

 his hiding-place, the hairs on his neck and tail bristled, 

 and makes for the two struggling creatures. 



If the place was a more open one the owl would 

 lose his clutch, and drop his quarry in order to get a 

 surer hold, but the kicking jerks from the rabbit in 

 that small place of action have brought the pair 

 in collision with the tangled dead limbs already. 

 Swearing like a cat, the marten leaps and runs now 

 here, now there, as the great owl flaps up and down 

 with his unwilling captive. With a long shriek, and 

 one more desperate fling from his hind limbs, the 



