122 BUFFALO LAND, 



of cloud, scarcely seemed to reach the earth before 

 him. Some hundreds of the little brown fellows 

 were running for dear life, and plunging wildly into 

 their holes without any manifestations of their usual 

 curiosity. The hawk's shadow fell on one fat, 

 burgher-like dog, perhaps the mayor of the town, 

 and in an instant the robber of the air was over him 

 and the talons fastened in his back. Then the bird 

 of prey beat heavily with its pinions, rising a few 

 feet, but, finding the prize too heavy, came down. 

 He was evidently frightened at the noise of the cars 

 and we hoped the prisoner would escape. But the 

 bird, clutching firmly for an instant the animal in 

 its talons, drew back his head to give force to the 

 blow, and down clashed the hooked beak into one 

 of the victim's eyes. A sharp pull, and the eyeball 

 was plucked out. Back went the beak a second 

 time, and the remaining eye was torn from its socket, 

 and the sightless body was then left squirming on 

 the ground, while the hawk flew hastily away a short 

 distance, evidently to return when we had passed on. 

 It was pitiful to see the dog raise up on its haunches 

 and for an instant sit facing us with its empty sockets, 

 then make two or three short runs to find a path, in 

 its sudden darkness, to some hole of refuge, but 

 fruitlessly, of course. 



A few days afterward, at Hays City, we witnessed 

 an affair in which the air-pirate got worsted. While 

 sitting before the office of the village doctor, a pow- 

 erful hawk pounced upon his favorite kitten, which 

 lay asleep on the grass, and started off with it. The 

 two had reached an elevation of fifty feet, when puss 



