TRAINING OF 1'OUNG BIRDS. 221 



carnivorous birds, the bringing of live prey to the 

 young, and of inviting them to kill and devour it, is 

 capable of being interpreted as it usually has been 

 as an instance of training them to hunt. We have 

 seen a kitten brought up by hand from the day 

 it could see, and, of course, before the mother had 

 any opportunity of instructing it to mouse, exhibit 

 all the cunning devices of a practised veteran in lying 

 in wait for a mouse, which it succeeded in capturing, 

 though, so far as we were aware, it had never before 

 seen a mouse*; and we have not a doubt, though 

 we never witnessed an instance, that a young hawk 

 would pounce upon the first live bird presented to it, 

 independently of all experience and instruction. But 

 though we look upon this as the correct view of the 

 matter, it may be well to give some of the statements 

 of those who adopt a different opinion. 



Albertus Magnus tells us, that " hawks feed their 

 young on the wing, generally for the space of a 

 month, and then abandon them. They instruct them 

 to catch such birds as they carry to the nest, and let 

 go again in their presence. But when the nestlings 

 are able to fly quite well, and to provide for them- 

 selves, they drive them away or forsake them f. 1 ' 

 The priests of Egypt, on that account, when they 

 wanted to represent a person who banished his 

 children, were accustomed to express the idea by 

 the figure of a brooding hawk. The same figure 

 was also understood to signify Want. Want, in- 

 deed, is said to be the reason of this conduct in 

 the hawk, while the eagle rears only one young one, 

 from pride and not from indigence. Such at least is 

 the account of Julian. But other writers of not 

 less repute think, perhaps with more truth, that 

 this severity on the part of the hawk is occa- 



*J.R. f Hist. Anim.vii.9. 



u3 



