BIRD LEGEND AND LIFE 



holes; and warty toads close their bright eyes and trust their 

 earthy color to protect them. 



Often the vigilant hunter snatches up his victim with 

 no pause in his flight, then sweeps on to some perch where 

 he can enjoy his sanguinary feast at leisure- 

 Even his ominous shadow passing over them as this rav- 

 enous bird of Jupiter swims above in the heavens, is enough 

 to strike terror to the creatures who know him as an enemy 

 ' — for any moment he is likely to drop down upon them as 

 though shot from the sky. On descending thus to earth he 

 clasps his hapless victim in his crooked and almost invariably 

 fatal talons. Even though his clutch should accidentally 

 prove insecure, his wings and tail enclose his quarry in a 

 prison from which there is no avenue of escape save that 

 beneath his armed beak. 



Yet this bird, hated by the unthinking partly because 

 of his rapacity, but more because of reputed visits to the 

 poultry yard, is not without his merits. The same wings 

 that in the meadows surround and imprison his prey, are used 

 in his home life to form a vaulted cover to protect from the 

 heat of the sun and also from storms and rain, his helpless 

 young, for whom he cares most tenderly. However cruel 

 he may be to his enemies, to his own he is gentle as any bird 

 in the wood. Proudly he assists his constant mate in plum- 

 ing her beautiful feathers and lovingly he strokes both her 

 and the little ones with the beak that is looked upon as cruel 

 by those who have with him only a belligerent acquaintance. 

 His immusical, muttering monologue when alone and his 

 fierce cry when pouncing upon his quarry both suggest the 

 transformed Tereug; but his soft, muffled utterances when 

 attending to the wants of his offspring hark back to the time 



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