The Story of a Red-tailed Hawk.— In Two Parts 



PART I — 



By MRS. A. B. MORGAN, Woodstock, Vt. 



FATE decreed thai June 12, 191 2, and the story of a Red-tailed Hawk 

 should be inseparably connected, since on that day a fledgling, rescued 

 from a fallen tree that contained a Hawk's nest and three young birds, 

 two of which met death in the fall, was brought to me in a bran-sack by the 

 mail-carrier, who remarked with animation, "There's something your brother 

 sent you from Appledore Farm, and I'd like to know what you'll do with it?" 

 Little did I think then that his question would come to be my daily, almost 

 hourly, cry. 



With eager curiosity I snatched the sack open and saw before me an awk- 

 ward, downy object that at first glance seemed to be mostly eyes and feet. 

 That it was a Hawk there could be no doubt, and a very young one at that. 

 As I took it in my hands to examine it further, it feigned dying, gasping with 

 pitiful sobs as if in mental anguish and leading me to take it to cover at once 

 and provide a soft nest for it in a slatted box. No sooner had I placed it therein 

 than the strange creature raised its head and slowly drew back the films from 

 the most appealing pair of eyes I have ever looked into. Something compelled 

 me to say, "Why Johnny, Appledore Johnny, do you want something to eat?" 

 At this he seemed to swoon, lying flat with his head buried in the excelsior I 

 had placed in the box and oblivious to all my coaxings. I had nothing in the 

 house that seemed like proper bird-food, but knowing that chickens thrive 

 when first hatched on the yoke of hard-boiled eggs, I decided to give him some. 

 I forcibly opened the big mouth and thrust the egg down his throat, following 

 it with two teaspoonfuls of water. The operation, judging from his actions, 

 was both painful.and distasteful. With a baffled feeling, I turned away, think- 

 ing that I might have administered his death potion, but not so — he was 

 destined to a future with me. I was called away for two days so that 'Johnny,' 

 as I henceforth called him, staid in his box without being disturbed, and with 

 no nourishment forced upon him. Upon my return he showed real hunger, and 

 I fed him small pieces of juicy beefsteak. In less than a week from that time, so 

 vigorous and lively did he seem that I fixed up a nest for him in the corner of a 

 shed measuring 12 by 14 feet, and there he was destined to have his home. 



For a few days I carried his food to his nest in a secluded corner of the shed, 

 but soon I called him to the door to get it for himself and nothing could be 

 funnier than to see him waddle toward me, lurching first on one side and then 

 on the other, all the time crying out in peevish e-e-es as if he could not wait to 

 reach the morsel that I dangled before him. If he were very hungry when I first 

 opened the door, he would give the scream that identified him in my mind as 

 a Red-tailed Hawk; and so he proved to be. 



His feathers, especially of wings and tail, grew rapidly, and soon the soft 



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