Western field . e falcon fell full upon the upturnedlance awaiting him. With his own cruellynotched beak he strove; with long, sharptalons he tore at the loons back, but theleathern skin of the diver held, and down,down into the icy water he bore the body ofthe winged terror in like manner as, incenturies agone, his far distant kin amid thefens of another North Country had bornethe famed Peregrine to his doom. Next daythe rats along the mainland shore fattenedon the body of the brown-feathered hunter,and from her perch above her nestful ofeggs in the dead pine, his mate screamedlong and loneli
Western field . e falcon fell full upon the upturnedlance awaiting him. With his own cruellynotched beak he strove; with long, sharptalons he tore at the loons back, but theleathern skin of the diver held, and down,down into the icy water he bore the body ofthe winged terror in like manner as, incenturies agone, his far distant kin amid thefens of another North Country had bornethe famed Peregrine to his doom. Next daythe rats along the mainland shore fattenedon the body of the brown-feathered hunter,and from her perch above her nestful ofeggs in the dead pine, his mate screamedlong and lonelily for him who would nevermore be mate to her. With the beavers, too, the great diver hadhis trouble, but he was more than a matchfor them and in their squabbles his matecould do her share in protecting the nest,which was, after all, what the beavers andthe rest of the four-foots really sought ratherthan the bodies of the parent birds them-selves. On the eggs of the mallards hid in THE PACIFIC COAST MAGAZINE 135. THE MOTHER LOON SAT LAZILY ON THE DIMPLINGWATER. the grasses of the shore the rats and eventhe sharp-billed herons fed, while the catsof the forest caught the sleeping birds bynight, but with the loons and their islandhome it was far different. The cats couldnot swim to them and they were far morethan a match for any of the rest of thepirates of earth or air that sought to preyupon them. And gradually the dank damp days ofnorthern spring passed into weeks and theweeks almost into a full month. The timeof blossoms came and waned toward itsclose, when, breaking slowly from theirshells, the ugly young of the loon pair cameforth. One of the two was a trifle ahead ofthe other in getting into the world, but thelast was no less lusty than the first, no lessready to feed upon the supply of semi-putridfish which the parent birds had prepared inanticipation of just such an event. Theygrew rapidly, almost from the first dayin fact, for it was now a race between themand time to ma
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectsports, bookyear1902
