LESSON XXI.
Reading edition
BIRDS OF PREY.
1. Sometimes we see a bird come sweeping down into the farm-yard and seize a chicken and fly away with it, and sometimes we see the same bird pounce down upon a robin, a wren, or a dove, and carry it off.
2. This robber is the hawk. Another robber, larger and stronger than the hawk, is the eagle, which we see on the opposite page. Let us look at them.
3. They are covered with mottled black and white feathers, which make them look gray. In some kinds of hawks, the breast is nearly white.
4. They have very strong wings, and can fly far and fast without being tired. The beak is short, strong, and pointed, and hooked at the end. It is made so that it can easily tear flesh from the bones of animals.
5. The claws, or talons, are strong, sharp, and hooked, and the leg above is short and strong.
6. The hawk preys upon chickens, the smaller birds, squirrels, and other small animals. The eagle will carry off hens, turkeys, rabbits, lambs, and the like. They have been known to carry off a baby.
7. The hawk and the eagle seize their prey, not with their beaks, but with their talons. They drive their long, sharp nails into the flesh, and the chicken or rabbit is dead in a few minutes.
8. They carry their prey to their nests, and there they hold it in their talons, and, with their beaks, tear off the flesh, which they eat, and feed to their young.
9. Both the hawk and the eagle have sharp eyes, and they can see a long distance. If we should see an eagle in a cage, we would find that its eyes are bright and a deep yellow in color; but they look wild and cruel, and we do not like to go very near it.
10. The fish-hawk preys upon fish. He sails slowly over the water until his sharp eyes see a fish, and then he dives down so straight and swift that he rarely misses.
11. Sometimes, when he comes up from the water, an old eagle that has been on the watch pounces upon him. The hawk tries to get away, but the eagle soon overtakes him.
12. With an angry scream the hawk drops the fish, and the eagle swoops downward so quickly that he catches the fish before it reaches the water. With his prey in his talons, he then soars away to his nest in the tree-tops, or high up among the rocks on the mountain-side.