202 



Wild Birds 



previous experience or practice, 1 as some water birds have been 

 known to do at the very moment of breaking the shell. There 

 is nothing more remarkable about this than that the swarm 

 spores of a Protozoan should swim at the moment the mem- 



Fig. 123. Young Red-shouldered Hawk spreading about its prey, which is held in 

 its talons. 



brane of the mother cell which encloses them bursts. Indeed, 

 their movements may be most active long before they are set 

 free. 



Why does the young Hawk (Fig. 123), when introduced for 

 the first time to prey which is alive and can move, crouch, rivet 



1 See Audubon, Ornithological Biography, vol. iii., p. 52. 



