Music of the Wild 



lavender. He was delicate and fragile as the bloom 

 of a tropical orchid, and reminded me of one as 

 he lightly hung to the rough walnut bark. They 

 were only that day emerged, and their wings were 

 not yet hardened sufficiently to bear their weight, 

 so they clung wherever I placed them and posed 

 in the most obliging manner. But the guide and 

 I made all the music. 



While I worked, over my head, all above the 

 forest, and around the outskirts sailed the beauti- 

 Faicon ful and graceful little dusky falcons. No charge 

 Music O f quietude can be made against them; they are 

 really noisy, which can not be said of great hawks. 

 Falcons are very handsome, and parade their 

 beauty as if they realized it. They are by far the 

 best-dressed members of the hawk family. The 

 very light color of their breasts is delicately shaded, 

 as is the bronze of their backs. Their cheek feath- 

 ers are white to a narrow line above the eyes, and 

 crossed by two parallel lines of black. They can 

 erect a small crest, which is tinted with dull blue, 

 and their long, graceful wing and tail feathers are 

 tipped with white. Their beaks have the hawklike 

 curved point for tearing. Their unusually large 

 eyes wear a soft expression, giving to them a wise 

 appearance. They attack small birds occasionally, 

 but live mostly on field mice, moles, grasshoppers, 

 and moths ; so they are in evidence in the fields, and 

 people are familiar with them. They like to watch 

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