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 weak, 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 great flight of kookooburras, for
they had heard the laughter, and all wanted to know what the joke was.
Proudly the Kookooburra told them all about the Snake sleeping on Dot,