A YOUNG MARSH HAWK 139 



their long, strong, naked wings hung down by 

 their sides till they touched the ground: power 

 and ferocity in the first rude draught, shorn of 

 everything but its sinister ugliness. Another 

 curious thing was the gradation of the young in 

 size ; they tapered down regularly from the first 

 to the fifth, as if there had been, as probably 

 there was, an interval of a day or two between 

 the hatching of each. 



The two older ones showed some signs of 

 fear on our approach, and one of them threw 

 himself upon his back, and put up his impotent 

 legs, and glared at us with open beak. The 

 two smaller ones regarded us not at all. 



Neither of the parent birds appeared during 

 our stay. 



When I visited the nest again, eight or ten 

 days later, the birds were much grown, but of 

 as marked a difference in size as before, and 

 with the same look of extreme old a^je — old 

 age in men of the aquiline type, nose and chin 

 coming together, and eyes large and sunken. 

 They now glared upon us with a wild, savage 

 look, and opened their beaks threateningly. 



The next week, when my friend visited the 

 nest, the larger of the hawks fought him sav- 

 agely. But one of the brood, probably the 

 last to hatch, had made but little growth. It 

 appeared to be on the point of starvation. The 

 mother hawk (for the male seemed to have dis- 

 appeared) had doubtless found her family too 

 large for her, and w'as deliberately allowing one 

 of the number to perish; or did the larger and 



