THE COOPER’S HAWK. 29 
4 
* 
gone. At that instant, a Cooper’s Hawk, that had evidently 
just made a swoop at the flock and missed it, alighted on a 
small tree that hung over the water, and remained perfectly 
motionless. Now, when man attempts to secure any of 
these young ducks, the parent almost always flies off, while 
the young dive and swim under water to the banks of the 
stream or pond where they may be. When a bird of prey 
makes his appearance, the whole family dives beneath the 
surface, and swims off; the mother in one direction, the 
young in another. I have noticed the same fact several 
times, and conclude that the parent, who frequently makes 
her appearance above the surface, does so because she is 
capable of enduring submersion better than her young, 
and shows herself often, a little farther from her offspring 
every time, until she had led their pursuer away from 
them ; giving them, in the mean time, a chance to swim off, 
and conceal themselves. The hawk, in this instance, was 
not to be deceived. He followed the parent but once, and 
then immediately returned to his perch. The banks of the 
river at this place were steep, there was no vegetation 
growing in the water, and the chances for obtaining a meal 
-from one of the young ducks were decidedly in the hawk’s 
favor. 
The young ducks are very expert divers. They have the 
faculty of sinking beneath the surface at any alarm, and 
will remain there perhaps half a minute. Unfortunately 
for them, they cannot swim beneath the surface a great 
distance, and generally come up quite near the place where 
they went down. The hawk sat attentively inspecting the 
river in different places; and, as one of the young birds 
made its appearance, he marked it for his victim. The 
moment it rose to the surface, he made a swoop for it, 
when, of course, it dove. This was repeated several times, 
the young duck remaining beneath the water a shorter 
length of time at each dive. Soon it was manifest that the 
hawk would obtain his quarry, when, as he flew for 
