274 THe Witson BULLETIN—NOs. 76-77. 
hold the meat in its claws by one foot then the other forward. 
Fed to the limit of the capacity of its crop, it would flatten 
out on its breast with extended wings and head for a sun bath, 
and learned to pull food from my hand with the twisting mo- 
tion of the adult. 
As my head came to the level of the nest of a pair of nest- 
lings 22 days old, they arose upright with wide open mouths 
and while they almost fell over backwards with surprise, they 
seemed as yet devoid of fear. The female, for so it proved, 
showed the most spirit and enterprise though a day behind the 
male in growth. At 23 days of age they stood upright in home- 
made nest, dressed their plumage, whistled in a chucking voice, 
picked the dismembered bits of 4 English sparrows from my fin- 
gers, gathered them up from the nest and snatched them from 
one another. When 24 days old the wing and leg exercises be- 
gan They danced with raised wings, heads bent toward lifted 
toes and wings almost touching above. During the day they 
occasionally lay on their sides with extended legs and slept at 
night squatting on their keels with heads partly under left 
wings. The next day they fought one another over the food, 
plucking at one another’s heads and necks, the male, which is 
the largest, on the defensive. Both whistle, grasp and tear 
food with talons and beaks. On the 26th day the male grew 
timid, dined with its back toward me, blanketed its food with 
its wings; the female on the contrary fearlessly faced me, con- 
tinued its whistled “chucks,” and then turned upon its nest 
mate and whipped him thoroughly. 27th day both could he eas- 
ily handled. When full to bursting, they moved their heads and 
necks backward, forward and sideways. Female fought for 
and obtained from the larger male, two live English sparrow 
nestlings which she killed. I reduced their meals to four a 
day. On the 28th day, male showed fear plainly, no longer ac- 
cepted food from my hands, the next day absolutely refused 
to eat while IT was looking, and the day following flew about 
to avoid me, while the female continued gentle and fearless. 
On the 31st day the female ate 12 good-sized crayfish, seemed 
to relish tearing them apart and devouring the pieces, though 
