gher upward,
their slender necks outstretched, their beaks cracking like castanets,
and their throats emitting an angry sound like the roaring of a brace of
lions.

The failure was not to be attributed to Ossaroo; but to the imprudence
of one of his companions--an individual of the party close treading upon
his heels. That individual was _Fritz_!

Just as Ossaroo was about casting his loop over the shoulders of a
sleeping adjutant, Fritz--who had followed the party from the hut--now
for the first time perceiving the birds, rushed forward and seized the
tail of one of them between his teeth. Then, as if determined on
securing the beautiful _marabout feathers_, he pulled a large mouthful
of them clean out by the roots.

This was not exactly the motive that impelled Fritz to make such an
unexpected attack--unexpected, because the well-trained animal would
have known better than to fright the game which his masters were in the
act of stalking; and such imprudence had never before been displayed by
him. It was the particular kind of game that had provoked Fritz to act
contrary to his usual habit of caution; for of all the creatures which
he had encountered, since his arrival in the counted there, was none
that had inspired him with a more profound feeling of hostility than
these same adjutants. During Fritz's sojourn in the Botanic Gardens of
Calcutta--where his masters, it will be remembered, were for some time
entertained as guests--Fritz had often come in contact with a brace of
these gigantic birds, that were also guests of that justly celebrated
establishment: they habitually made their stay within the enclosure,
where they were permitted to stalk about unmolested, and pick up such
stray scraps as were cast out by the domestics of the _curator's_
mansion.

These birds had grown so tame, as to take food freely out of the hand of
anyone who offered it to them; and with like freedom, to take it where
it was not offered, but found within reach of their long prehensile
beaks. Often had they pilfered provisions to which they were anything
but welcome; and, among other acts of their rapacity, there was one of
which Fritz had been an interested spectator, and for which he was not
likely ever to forgive them. That was, their robbing him of a dainty
piece of meat, which one of the cooks had presented to Fritz himself;
and upon which he had been going to make his dinner. One of the birds
had the audacity to seize the m