tle body; so it went slowly towards the bush, to get some frogs
or birds for breakfast. But as it wriggled into the warm morning
sunlight outside, Dot saw a sight that made her clap her hands together
with anxiety for the life of the jolly Kookooburra.

No sooner did the black Snake get outside the cave, than she saw the
Kookooburra fall like a stone from its branch, right on top of the
Snake. For a second, Dot thought the bird must have tumbled down dead,
it was such a sudden fall; but a moment later she saw it flutter on the
ground, in battle with the poisonous reptile, whilst the Snake wriggled,
and coiled its body into hoops and rings. The Kookooburra's strong
wings, beating the air just above the writhing Snake, made a great
noise, and the serpent hissed in its fierce hatred and anger. Then Dot
saw that the Kookooburra's big beak had a firm hold of the Snake by the
back of the neck, and that it was trying to fly upwards with its enemy.
In vain the dreadful creature tried to bite the gallant bird; in vain it
hissed and stuck out its wicked little spiky tongue; in vain it tried to
coil itself round the bird's body; the Kookooburra was too strong and
too clever to lose its hold, or to let the Snake get power over it.

At last Dot saw that the Snake was getting weaker and weaker, for,
little by little, the Kookooburra was able to rise higher with it, until
it reached the high bough. All the time the Snake was held in the bird's
beak, writhing and coiling in agony; for he knew that the Kookooburra
had won the battle. But, when the noble bird had reached its perch, it
did a strange thing; for it dropped the Snake right down to the ground.
Then it flew down again, and brought the reptile back to the bough, and
dropped it once more--and this it did many times. Each time the Snake
moved less and less, for its back was being broken by these falls. At
last the Kookooburra flew up with its victim for the last time, and,
holding it on the branch with its foot, beat the serpent's head with
its great strong beak. Dot could hear the blows fall,--whack, whack,
whack,--as the beak smote the Snake's head; first on one side, then on
the other, until it lay limp and dead across the bough.

"Ah! ah! ah!--Ah! ah! ah!" laughed the Kookooburra, and said to Dot,
"Did you see all that? Wasn't it a joke? What a capital joke! Ha! ha!
ha! ha! ha! Oh! oh! oh! how my sides do ache! What a joke! How they'll
laugh when I tell them." Then came a gr