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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



A MOTHER FALCON COCKS A KEEN EYE AT THE LENS AS THE CAMERA CLICKS 



Starting to incubate her splotched mahogan>'-colored eggs, the female duck hawk squats down 

 behind them and slowly shuffles forward, quivering all over to fluff out her feathers so that the warm 

 down next to her body will cover the eggs. This was the first bird of prey photographed by the 

 Craighead brothers in the wild. To focus their camera, the boys had to lie on their stomachs with 

 one foot dangling over the cliff overlooking the Potomac River. 



and there it remained, a disturbing element, 

 until we had finished climbing. 



Frank insisted on going over to select 

 his hawk and we hoped we were not tempt- 

 ing fate or the rope by letting him go. 

 Nevertheless, the staring spectators and the 

 ambulance worried us. But Frank said, 

 "To heck with them. If we fall, a broom 

 is what they need, not an ambulance." 



NO PLACE TO BE CARELESS 



Frank was lowered, picked a lively young 

 falcon, and started to climb up, but the 

 hawk had other ideas. She got her head 

 and one foot out of the knapsack and when 

 he tried to shove her back she clamped on 



his hand with her talons. While we held 

 him suspended he pried his hand loose and 

 then climbed to the top, much to our relief. 



We have found it never pays to be 

 careless or overconfident while undertaking 

 to climb a cliff. Several summers ago, 

 while quite inexperienced in such work, we 

 climbed to the eyrie of a prairie falcon in 

 Wyoming, about fifty miles south of Yel- 

 lowstone National Park. As we discovered 

 too late, a steel helmet would have been a 

 valuable piece of equipment.* 



Frank, who is always lucky on flips, 



* See "Week-Ends with the Prairie Falcon," by 

 Frederick Hall Fowler, in The N.^^tional Geo- 

 graphic Magazine for May, 1935. 



