"Most important," interrupted Five-gun. "Give to me in detail."
"They prefer to attack strollers, although they have attacked on city streets when there is little traffic. They fly with amazing speed, considering they are an untidy ball forty feet in diameter, and they are on top of their victims before the unlucky ones are aware of the menace. Blowing their victims down with a rush of air from their feathers, they grab them up by the heels, carry them high aloft and drop them on piles of rock outside of town."
"They are downdraft-peoplehawk-whirlybirds then?" asked DeCrabbe.
"That's almost it," agreed the mayor. "I have not yet told you of their cries. As they rise in the air with the victim dangling from their talons by his heels, they utter a pleased 'Coo! Coo!' like a gentle dove. That is why they are called Coocoo-downdraft-peoplehawk-whirlybirds."
"Approve of adequate names," nodded Five-gun, unbending a trifle. "First step toward efficiency. Only one thing haven't made clear. Presumably have shotguns and rifles. Why unable drive off these predators yourselves?"
The mayor laughed bitterly. "It would be easy to tell you'd just arrived on this planet—although the birds are not well known in the other cities either; they are all concentrated in this area. Yes, our sportsmen tried to shoot down the whirlybirds. No luck, of course. Imagine the problems you have when one of these forty-foot balls of commotion comes at you: You try to aim but you can't hold your arm still because of the swirling wind they raise; and then the dust clouds thicken and you're firing wildly, and you can't begin to tell which is body and which is feathers anyway."
"Very well," accepted Charles DeCrabbe mercifully. "You've made attempt. My first step therefore the attachment of high explosives to boobytrapped mannequins. Brought these with me."
"Great winds of catastrophe. I'm glad you mentioned it before you did it!" exclaimed the mayor. "We tried that once. The city was six weeks digging out from under the feathers—and it didn't kill the whirlybird!"
"Aren't you exaggerating difficulties encountered in picking up few feathers?" loftily inquired DeCrabbe.