The Burgess Bird Book for ChildrenBurgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)
General
The Burgess Bird Book for Children
Burgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)
Birds -- Juvenile literature
But there are others whom Peter fears even more, and these wear feathers
instead of fur coats. One of these is Terror the Goshawk. Peter is
not alone in his fear of Terror. There is not one among his feathered
friends who will not shiver at the mention of Terror's name. Peter will
not soon forget the day he discovered that Terror had come down from the
Far North, and was likely to stay for the rest of the winter. Peter went
hungry all the rest of that day.
You see it was this way: Peter had gone over to the Green Forest very
early that morning in the hope of getting breakfast in a certain swamp.
He was hopping along, lipperty-lipperty-lip, with his thoughts chiefly
on that breakfast he hoped to get, but at the same time with ears and
eyes alert for possible danger, when a strange feeling swept over him.
It was a feeling that great danger was very near, though he saw nothing
and heard nothing to indicate it. It was just a feeling, that was all.
Now Peter has learned that the wise thing to do when one has such a
feeling as that is to seek safety first and investigate afterwards.
At the instant he felt that strange feeling of fear he was passing a
certain big, hollow log. Without really knowing why he did it, because,
you know, he didn't stop to do any thinking, he dived into that hollow
log, and even as he did so there was the sharp swish of great wings.
Terror the Goshawk had missed catching Peter by the fraction of a
second.
With his heart thumping as if it were trying to pound its way through
his ribs, Peter peeped out of that hollow log. Terror had alighted on
a tall stump only a few feet away. To Peter in his fright he seemed the
biggest bird he ever had seen. Of course he wasn't. Actually he was very
near the same size as Redtail the Hawk, whom Peter knew well. He was
handsome. There was no denying the fact that he was handsome.
His back was bluish. His head seemed almost black. Over and behind each
eye was a white line. Underneath he was beautifully marked with wavy
bars of gray and white. On his tail were four dark bands. Yes, he was
handsome. But Peter had no thought for his beauty. He could see nothing
but the fierceness of the eyes that were fixed on the entrance to that
hollow log. Peter shivered as if with a cold chill. He knew that in
Terror was no pity or gentleness.
“I hope,” thought Peter, “that Mr. and Mrs. Grouse are nowhere about.”
You see he knew that there is no one that Terror would rather catch than
a member of the Grouse family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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