30 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



same instant the falcon made a swoop, but miss- 

 ing her quarry, she. suddenly appeared a consi- 

 derable distance below him, and now it seemed 

 doubtful whether she could recover the advantage 

 which she had lost by this unexpected failure. 

 While she struggled upwards again in circular 

 gyrations, and the mallard also made the best of 

 his time to attain a higher elevation by execu- 

 ting a similar movement, but in a much wider 

 curve, the two birds frequently seemed to be 

 flying in opposite directions. The superior ease 

 and rapidity, however, with which this manoeuvre 

 was performed by the peregrine, soon convinced 

 me that the result of the chace could not be 

 doubtful; for the drake was now far from his 

 favourite element, and as each successive evolu- 

 tion brought his enemy nearer and nearer, he 

 seemed to relax in his efforts to ascend any 

 higher, and at length turning his tail to the 

 wind, away he went towards the bog of Killeen, 

 trusting for escape to the rapidity of his flight, 

 and closely pursued by the falcon. I felt that 

 not a moment was to be lost if I wished to 

 witness the denouement; so, scrambling to the top 

 of the bank, I was just in time to see the mallard 

 tumbling headlong to the earth, while the falcon 

 checking her downward career for a moment, as 

 if to satisfy herself of the success of the stroke, 



