A HAWK DONE TO DEATH BY A HEN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1374, 4 August 1885, Page 3

A HAWK DONE TO DEATH BY A HEN.

Four miles from Aiken, S.C., at the home of Mr T. C. Barker, recently, a matronly hen was cheerily clucking to her downy brood and industriously scratching for their matutinal meal, when there appeared in the sky overhead a huge hawk whirling in concentric circles. A sharp note of warning from the patriarchal cock hurried the feeding fowls to places of concealment, and followed by a sharp cluck cf the old hen, sent the infant spring ohicken scurrying beneath the protecting wings of their mother, ind none too soon came the alarm. The next instant there was a whirring sound in the air, and, with wings close into his body, coming head foremost like a shot out ol a cannon, (he hawk landed among the panic-stricken brood. But he had reckoned without his host. The old hen had sand in her gizzard and was true blue. With her wings extended and the feathers on her neck standing apart, she met the onslaught of the bird of prey. No sooner had he touched the ground than she was upon him. The conflict, which was witnessed by several reliable parties, was as brief as it was brilliant, and before help could reach the plucky little hen she had stretched the feathered pirate lifeless at her feet. The hawk measured just four feet from tip to tip, and was carried to Aiken and exhibited. A lucky biow from the beak of the hen entered his eye and penetrated his brain.