THE BIG BLOW. 231 
It was his eye that spotted the pigeon 
alongside a hedge, sitting suspiciously still ; 
and it was his beak which—vwell, seeking 
enlightenment—disclosed the fact ‘that that 
pigeon was unwell. In less time than you 
would believe, that pigeon was dead, and half- 
a-dozen rooks were partaking of the first meal 
of the day. 
Also, there was the cat with a partridge 
which had surrendered to the cold. Usually 
that old rook might have forgotten to see a 
cat, but this time he saw her all right. She 
saw him, too, and wished she had never been 
such a fool as to venture into that low, thin 
hedge. Yet it saved her life, or, at least, her 
eyes, from our friend and his flock. It did 
not save her the partridge, though; that went 
down a dozen or so rook throats, simultane- 
ously and in sections. 
Thus it came about that by the time the 
shore of the estuary hove in sight the president 
of the elders and about two out of every ten 
of his friends were not quite so empty as they 
had been. But what is that to a rook ? 
Somehow the old rook was a little uneasy 
about the estuary, although he had led the 
flock to it. The company rooks are likely to 
meet on an estuary at any time is liable to be 
cosmopolitan, to say the best of it ; at freezing- 
