Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1896 — Pigeons Outwit a Hawk. [ARTICLE]

Pigeons Outwit a Hawk.

The Southern Sportsman told recently about a flock of pigeons that measured brains with a hawk and came out on top in the contest. H. S. Edwards owned a flock of pigeons which one day were cut off from their cote by a large hawk. The pigeons knew that if the hawk once got above them, one at least of their number would go to make the hawk a meal, and so up they flew in circles, perhaps hoping to go higher than the haw’k. In the rising game they were no match for the hawk. The latter kept under the pigeons, and leisurely followed their laborious movements. Then came a curious and unexpected sight to Mr. Edwards. Every pigeon closed its wings, when they appeared to be the size of sparrows, and down they came past the hawk at a terrific rate. That astonished the hawk. It actually dodged the dropping birds, and missed half a dozen wing strokes before it got in full chase of them. When it got down to the barnyard not a pigeon was in sight—some were in the cote, some in the porch, two in the well house and one was in the kitchen. The hawk had been outwitted completely. It is a question how the pigeons managed to check their fall, as they did not slacken up till they were about sixteen or twenty feet above the ground, when they scattered In all directions to escape the hawk.