WILD LIFE ON THE WING 
Seumas Skerritt came up the tower and sought 
for him, and lolar screamed and dragged him- 
self along the leads where the man dared not 
pursue. In his fear he slipped off the transept 
roof, and only won his way back after a frantic 
struggle (he who had been bred on the heights 
of Slieve Crogher). But the man did not 
pursue him. Instead he went away and left a 
piece of meat behind him. lolar's gorge rose 
against it, and he loathed the man the more. 
Crippled, starving as he was, he would not 
suffer the last degradation of accepting his 
betrayer's gift. He turned his eyes away from 
the flesh and the jackdaws ate it. 
The next day passed in the same fashion, but 
Cudog the daw and his clan became bolder. 
They foraged in the town middens and brought 
their booty to the church roof to eat. Three 
days ago they would not have dared to gor- 
mandize and riot under the falcon's eyes. Now 
they were insolently bold, romping and squab- 
bling up and down the aisle roofs regardless 
of him. Towards midday, when they had 
finished their repast, they flew to the south 
porch to preen and gossip and then supremest 
degradation lolar furtively searched the roofs 
for their leavings. Even so he found little 
enough : a bit of mouldy bacon-rind, a stale 
bone offal, such as he had never tasted 
