150 AMID THE HIGH HILLS 
. . . On this occasion I took possession ... of 
the wild hawk's prey. On examining the effect 
of her two blows, I found that three ribs on one 
side were clean cut through and separated from 
the backbone as by a chop with a heavy knife 
and strong hand, and one talon had entered and 
split the base of the skull, from which the brains 
were protruding." 
One of the foremost advocates of the contention 
that the fatal blow is inflicted by a stroke of the 
wing is Mr. Tom Speedy, who deals with this 
subject in his Natural History of Sport in Scot- 
land ivith Rod and Gun (pp. 102, 103). He 
bases his argument first on the supposition that 
when the fatal blow is struck on the back of the 
quarry, the skin is only bruised and not torn. He 
writes : 
" A keeper friend of mine near Kingussie 
witnessed a grouse struck down by a peregrine, 
and as there was not a mark on it he sent it to me. 
Carefully plucking it, I noted that with the 
exception of a bruise along the spine there was 
no other mark on it ; yet the blow had been 
sufficient to cause instant death. This comports 
with my own observations, and it is difficult to 
understand how this blow could be struck by 
