218 The Pichietar Fishing. — [cHAP. XII. 
a“ 
neath, and watching with eager gaze the movements of their 
scaly inhabitants—and now, as one of them would ever and 
anon come sufficiently near the surface, making his attack 
upon the fish in the manner so thoroughly taught him by 
nature. Quick as thought, he closed to his side his out- 
spread pinions; turned off his equilibrium with a move- 
ment almost imperceptible; and, with a seeming careless- 
ness, threw himself headlong into the deep so rapidly that 
the eye could with difficulty keep pace with his descent. 
In the least space of time he would be seen sitting on the 
water, swallowing his prey. This being accomplished, he 
again mounted into the air. He halts in his progress. 
Something has caught his eye. He lets himself down; but 
it is only for a little, for his expected prey has vanished 
from his sight. 
“Once more he soars aloft on lively wing; and, having 
attained a certain elevation, and hovering, kestrel-like, for a 
little, with quick-repeated strokes of his pinions he rapidly 
descends. Again, however, his hoped-for victim has made 
its escape; and he bounds away in an oblique direction, 
describing a beautiful curve as he rises without having 
touched the water. Shortly after, he wings his way nearer 
and nearer to the beach; onward he advances with zigzag 
flight, when suddenly, as if struck down by an unseen hand, 
he drops into the water within about thirty yards of the 
place where I am standing. As he righted and sat on the 
bosom of the deep, I was enabled distinctly to perceive 
that he held in his bill a little scaly captive, which he 
had snatched from its home, and which struggled violent- 
ly to regain its liberty. Its struggles were in vain; a few 
squeezes from the mandibles of the bird put an end to its 
existence. 
“Being now within my reach, I stood prepared for the 
moment when he should again arise. This he did so soon 
as the fish was dispatched. I fired, and he came down with 
a broken wing, screaming as he fell into the water. The 
