parabfse Circle 



part in the tragedy of avian life. My notes 

 of observation have abundant references 

 to hairbreadth escapes, bloody murders, 

 sudden swoopings, and desperate strug- 

 gles, with these cruel birds as centers of 

 force and action. Wherever I have walked 

 in wood and field the hawk has come upon 

 the scene, a beautiful and terrible appari- 

 tion. He was the devil in Paradise Circle, 

 and one morning I did unto him some- 

 what as he was in the habit of doing unto 

 others. He fell upon a quail that I had 

 been stalking; and it exasperated me to 

 see him use his own body as a missile with 

 truer aim than I could compass over my 

 tackle. Indeed, he raped the game boldly 

 from its hiding-place right under my gaze, 

 when I was preparing to shoot; and be- 

 fore he could rise with it I bowled him 

 over, the thief! 



Ah, if I were but gifted, if I could sur- 

 prise the secret of genius, so that what I 

 know about birds, what I have seen them 

 do, what songs and cries and rapturous 

 gurglings I have heard from them, could 

 be spilled out of my pen, an ink of mag- 

 58 



