﻿6 Bird -Lore 



Boy No. i knew boy No. 2 who had found the nest and taken the 

 young Hawks home. Two he had given away, one he had kept. 



Calling at the home of boy No. 2, I found that one Hawk (given to boy 

 No. 3) had died. Another (given to an Italian) had been tied out by a 

 string and had escaped. The third he had kept — until his mother became 

 very nervous over it. 



"It was liable to get out," she told her son, "and kill some of the 

 chickens some day when they were away. And if they should let it go, it 

 would most likely kill somebody else's chickens, so he had better take the 

 axe and cut its head off." And this he had proceeded at once obediently 

 to do! (Oh, wise parent! Oh, sacred chickens!) 



"The way it tore a Sparrow in pieces that had been put into its cage 

 made her fear," she said, "for the fate of her chickens if they were not 

 carefully protected." 



A hungry Hawk must have food of some kind, I suggested. And the 

 Broad -wings were certainly not chicken -thieves. They were the farmer's 

 friends and their lives should not be wantonly sacrificed. 



Pityingly she looked at me. A Hawk was a Hawk to her, and never 

 could be anything else, — an outlaw, an enemy, always proper food for shot 

 or the axe and the dung-hill. 



The nest, she told me, had been robbed June 24, and when the boy 

 climbed the tree the young Hawks flew to the ground. 



As I turned homeward I felt depressed. A deed had been done in 

 nature for which there was no good excuse. Were country people alway 

 to dwell under the power of a foolish prejudice? 



My Chickadee Family 



By MARION BOLE 



BECAUSE of its cheerful and confiding disposition, the Chickadee is 

 easily the favorite among the winter birds. A bird that can sing on 

 a morning when the thermometer has registered thirty or forty 

 below zero is certainly a most cheering neighbor during the winter, and 

 one which has remained with me through the summer has proved itself 

 equally desirable as a summer boarder. 



With the possible exception of the Red-breasted Nuthatch, I have found 

 the Chickadee the most easily tamed of the winter birds. It is not usually 

 a difficult matter to induce them to come to the hand for food. There is, 

 however, quite a difference in individual birds of the same species; some are 

 much more easily tamed than others. One bird, which is the tamest of all, 

 I called the Chickadee of the Chair, because of his habit of coming to the 



