OUR BIRDS IN WINTER. 
87 
direction, he would fall a victim to the panther ; 
and feeling that his good wife, who had once 
kindly befriended me, would be terribly afflict- 
ed at such a catastrophe, I resolved to try to 
turn him from his course. I had no time for 
a choice of expedients : I must act at once. 
I immediately, therefore, attacked the Red 
Poll, who was fluttering in the foliage in the 
trees above, and after considerable of a skir- 
mish, in which I got two or three severe blows, 
for I am a little body, and a slight stroke is 
sufficient to hurt me, I succeeded in turning 
Red Poll from her course, and actually drove 
her a considerable distance off into the woods, 
away from the pantli^r. Mr. Littleton, en- 
raged at my interference in his pursuits, 
pointed his gun at me several times in order 
to take my life, but I was careful to keep Red 
Poll between us, as I knew he was anxious to 
find her nest. While he was following us, he 
suddenly startled a hare from its covert, which’ 
running in. the direction of the panther, fell a 
victim to its hunger. Mr. Littleton, ignorant 
of the narrow escape he had had, continued to 
