FALCON AND TEAL. 33 



through the thick sedges. These glimpses, how- 

 ever, were so partial, and the ducks continued to 

 rise so frequently without my being able to see 

 them, that I at last struggled through as quickly 

 as the nature of the ground would admit, and oc- 

 casionally above my waist in the water. I was well 

 repaid, however ; for just as I cleared the cover, a 

 small flock of teal, which had probably seen their 

 enemy overhead and skulked before me to the 

 edge of the reed bed, now sprang up at my feet 

 and took wing with evident reluctance. Almost 

 at the same instant I saw the falcon dash into the 

 midst of them, as if she had fallen from the 

 clouds, and in spite of the sudden and simulta- 

 neous whirl of the whole party towards the sur- 

 face of the water, she succeeded in clutching one 

 of them and carrying it across the pool, until she 

 plunged with it into a thick clump of reeds and 

 oziers, which clothed a little promontory that pro- 

 jected from the opposite side of the river. 



Kind reader ! I have perhaps detained you too 

 long on the banks of the Brosna, but my remi- 

 niscences of almost every spot that I have visited 

 are so intimately associated with birds, that ( for 

 the life of me ' I could not help it. Had I been 

 less of a sportsman or more of an astronomer, I 

 might perhaps have edified you with marvellous, yet 

 strictly veracious accounts of all that was revealed 



c 5 



