220) Tue Wirsen BuLLetIn——Nos. 76-77. 
other set of claws fly out like a flash to secure the prey falling 
from the board. Its grasp is painful and not easily loosened, 
though it will ordinarily rest harmless on my extended hand 
and playfully nibble at my fingers. 
When five months old its actions gave the lie to the oft re- 
peated assertion that the species was given to cowardice. One 
foggy morning a skunk harboring peacefully under one of the 
buildings. attempted to dig its way into the enclosure, doubt- 
less tempted by the scraps dropped from the feedmg board: 
the hawk sat as motionless as an owl, directly over the place 
where the animal’s paws sought entrance, prepared to spring 
upon its bulky visitor. My scientific researches did not include 
a possible disablement of my pet nor the pollution of the at- 
mosphere, besides | kept a box tortoise in the cage to act as a 
general scavenger, which duty it performed to my satisfaction ; 
and I was not sorry to have the skunk retire before any dam- 
age was done. One or two days later, our cat, an immense 
tom, climbed to the top of the cage out of curiosity perhaps, 
and with sinewy yellow paws extended through the wire mesh, 
excited the hawk to an upward attack, flying against the wires 
much to the cat’s discomforture. On Nevembeer 15, I placed 
it in its winter quarters in the barn loft and the next day dis- 
covered that it had escaped by dashing against a window sash, 
dislodging an 8x10 giass, a sufficiently large opening to afford 
an exit. It apparently roosted in a spruce in front of the 
house, and the next day I discovered it twenty-five feet up in 
a maple across the road Shooting a couple of English spar- 
rows, I threw them on the snow near the tree and tried to 
coax it down. In response to my whistle which always meant 
food, it flew lower and again dropped a few more feet, hut 
reconsidered the matter and retired to the former position. 
Toward evening it retired to the evergreens on my neighbor’s 
place; again and again I almost had my hands on it only to 
have it take wing in the peculiarly exasperating manner of a 
half-tamed pet. The third day it came down to the line fence, 
heing unable in its half-famished condition to make headway 
against a very high wind. though it fought its captor savagely. 
