iSo4 1 Kennard 011 Young Red-shouldered Haxvks. 2 7Q 



against her head, trying seemingly to pick her eyes out. I 

 noticed, too, that upon the appearance of the Blue Jays, the 

 smaller birds seemed to pay much more attention to them than 

 to Topsy. I gathered in one of the Jays, and wounded an 

 English Sparrow which I took up to the Hawks' room and 

 introduced to Bute. Bute had never in her life seen a live bird. 

 Nevertheless, as soon as the Sparrow attempted to flutter across 

 the room, it had not gotten two feet before Bute had swooped 

 down upon it from a high perch, in the most approved Hawk 

 fashion. She grabbed it with both feet, and upon my retiring to 

 a distance, proceeded to tear the feathers from oft' its neck and 

 eat that portion of its anatomy. While doing so, she showed up 

 her importance to the best of her ability by erecting or extending 

 each and every feather she had, even her tail being spread to its 

 fullest breadth, and her wings ch'ooping down on each side of her 

 till they touched the shelf on which she stood. 



Topsy had for some time been catching up with Bute in clever- 

 ness, as well as growth, and on July 2, when I gave her a piece 

 of the meat that was too big for her to eat whole, she took it in 

 her talons and tore it with her beak. Pete, too, had been caught 

 lately feeding himself out of the plate in which I usually kept their 

 food, so I now felt relieved of the responsibility of feeding any of 

 them, except for pleasure. 



On July 7, although Pete had been feeling pretty well all the 

 week, and although he was still growing, though perhaps not so 

 fast as his sisters, I decided to gather him to his fathers. He 

 had been growing weaker and weaker, and was hardly able to 

 stand, much less to walk. When he tried to stand it was pitiable to 

 see him ; a sort of creeping paralysis seemed to have seized him. 

 So I put a pistol ball mercifully through him and ended his 

 ugly, noisy, contrary existence. 



On this same day I was compelled to clip one of Topsy's 

 wings ; she had caught the trick of late of flopping from branch 

 to branch, up any tree that came handy, and it had become only 

 a question of time until she should get up so far that I could not 

 get her down, or until she should fly away entirely. 



On July 16 I went away for the summer, and, I am sorry to say, 

 bade good-bye to my Hawks forever. They had the best care that 

 my family could give them, but in spite of this they both died 



