SOME FEATHERED BUILDERS 35 



young falcons and hawks tumbled over on 

 their backs in their feeble efforts to strike at 

 me whenever I fed them. They would eat all 

 I gave them, but they struck at the hand that 

 fed them all the same. But there are degrees 

 in wickedness, even among birds ; and taking 

 all my own varied experiences into considera- 

 tion, I may say that the sparrow - hawk, for 

 fully developed hereditary cussedness, pure and 

 simple, in a state of captivity, beats all. I am 

 sorry to have to say it ; but it is the bare fact. 



The young of falcons and hawks are well 

 trained by their parents : from the time they 

 are strong enough to pull at and break up the 

 quarries brought to them, it is one long course 

 of instruction. The old birds know perfectly 

 well what the young ones will have to do, and 

 they get them fit for doing it as soon as they 

 can. They compel them to take longer flights 

 day after day, and teach them how to stoop 

 that is, strike at their quarry. One or the 

 other will shoot up with a portion of feather, 

 or it may be fur, followed by the young hope- 

 fuls. Then the morsel is dropped from the 

 clutch down they dash for it, and the one 

 that makes the quickest stoop secures the prize 

 before it reaches the ground. When the old 



