Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1912 — SHOWN HOW TO GET FOOD [ARTICLE]

SHOWN HOW TO GET FOOD

Young Hawks Are Systematically Taught by Parent the Way to Seize Prey. While fishing in a remote and wild part of Scotland a British naturalist chanced to witness an performance in the form of a feeding lesson given by an old hawk to its young. A cry of a young hawk to its parent was heard, and the naturalist soon located three young peregrine falcons, sitting side by side op a shelf of rock overhanging the lake In which he was fishing. Presently the old bird came into view, like a dot out of the sky, and made straight for her vociferous young. u 2- —-' ■ She poised high above the shelf on which they were sitting add, to the gs £ xzs I youngster number cm

dashed off the cliff. Evidently this was not its first lesson, for it hurled itself into a beautiful swoop and actually caught the prey before it reached the water. ' _ The youngster was not allowed to enjoy it, however, for down came the old bird, and with the utmost grace snatched it from the young one’s grasp and ascended in rapid rings to the height of several hundred feet The discomfited youngster, with some difficulty, returned to the rocky shelf The old hawk repeated this maneuver, dropping the prey this time in front of number two ",. The young all knew their lesson, for neither number one nornumber three ventured to stir. It was number two who started in pursuit, and, like its brother or sister, succeeded in interrupting the falling prey before it reached the water. The old hawk did as before, snatch ing the prey from her offspring. Ris Ing high in the air, she this time dropped it before number three, who in turn, caught it But number three was not allowed to possess the prize The old hawk now ascended to the shelf beside the young ones, tore the prey to pieces and proceeded to di vide it equally among her hungry and expectant progeny.—Harper’s Weekly