68 TITHE WILD AVENGERS. 
agony that made it turn on itself and strike 
at a second animated black feathered tent, 
only again to waste its poison on wing- 
feathers held like a shield, and to be nipped 
from in front. 
‘Hoo-hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo-hoo!’ In a 
moment the birds, which were ground horn- 
bills, had surrounded it with a ring of arched 
wings held out as shields—pecking, pecking, 
pecking always with their terrible beaks at 
its writhing body, till its back was broken, 
and, still fighting, it died. 
