The Chorus of the Forest 



grain fields from the vantage of a telephone wire, 

 and their graceful downward sweep when they 

 sight prey is a beautiful thing to see. 



They nest in hollow trees and bring off broods 

 of five and six young, from their first feathering 

 closely resembling the elders. These young are 

 very social and make charming pets, becoming 

 wholly domesticated in a few days. If not exactly 

 the same, they are very similar to the falcons used 

 by royal British women in the sport of hawking, 

 and the small birds that we see in old prints and 

 paintings perching on gauntlet or saddle-pommel 

 must have been great pets with their owners. They 

 are the musicians of the hawk and falcon families 

 and have all their relatives talked into almost com- 

 plete silence. "Ka-tic, a-tic, a-tic!" they cry as 

 they dash after moth or grasshopper, millions of 

 which one pair will take from a field in a season, 

 making them a great blessing to a farmer. Full- 

 fed and happy they swing on the ever-present tele- 

 phone wire and repeatedly sing in a liquid, run- 

 ning measure entitled to be classed as very good 

 music, "Tilly, tilly, tilly!" 



By no stretch of imagination could the big 

 hawks be coupled with melody. They are the 

 kings of the treetops, but they use a sign language 

 that all other birds readily translate. Their home 

 in large trees is often founded on a crow's last 

 year's nest. They use signals in courting, caress 

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