The Story of a Red-tailed Hawk 



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his eyes, to the sky above him. He hesitated no longer, but mounted up 

 and flew slowly to the woods, where he lighted in a big maple. There we 

 could see him hopping from limb to limb, as if enjoying the time of his life, 

 and afterward preening his feathers and getting ready for the journey from 

 which I had not the heart to turn him back. I saw him sail down the valley, 

 and for a week, at least, I hoped that he might return of his own free will 

 for food; but, as the days went by and there was no sight of him, I watched 

 no longer. He had entered into the liberty that every wild thing craves and 

 inherits as its natural right. 



The most striking, and, perhaps the most pathetic part of this experience 

 with a bird so intelligent as a Hawk, is its attempt to accommodate itself to new 

 conditions that are in opposition to its heredity. Johnny tried to think and 

 act in terms of a human being. That he succeeded to an astonishing degree, 

 none can dispute, and, since having this experience, I cannot wonder that the 

 ancient Egyptians worshipped the Hawk. 



SAVANNAH SPARROW 

 Photographed by Guy A. Bailey, Geneseo, N. Y. 



