The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-20
BY ERNEST HAROLD BAYNEs.

We do not as a rule, look for gentle
ness in hawk; every one who has had
much experience with birds of prey knows
that. as rule, they are savage and I'M
compromising. With bills and talons sharp
and strong for the very purpose of dealing
death to the weaker creatures which serve
them as food, and with wild. fierce cries
which reflect their savage, almost untam-
able natures, they seem, of all birds, to be
the very last from which to expect kind
a response to kindness However,
| know of at least one eXception-the
Droadwinged hawk, whose gentle nature,
long known to ornithologists. I have lately
had personal proof Of If ! belonged to the
imaginative school, should be apt to be-
l1eve that the broad-winged hawk loathed
his trade. and that he hunted and killed
from sheer necessity. His mild little face
and his pathetic, almost beseeching voice
seems more in keeping with creature
which is hunted than with one which hunts
and it is sometimes difficult for me TO I'M
derstand how he can ever find it in his
heart TO strike down a mouse or a frog.
Last April a friend of mine was walk
ing along the edge of a wood In Pennsyl-
vania, when he saw pair of broad-winged
hawks sailing gracefully above the tree
tops. Sometimes, as they wheeled, he
caught glimpses of their dark, greyish-
brown backs, but most of the time, all he
could see, even with his field glass, were
the whitish breasts, barred with brown,
and the half-transparent tails, with two
white bars After wheeling in circles for a
time, they presently dropped down into the
wood, and from different trees they called
oh ~
e-e-e," said one, and then, after a pause
came the plaintive answer, ''Chee-we-e-
e-e," and they kept up this sad conversa-
ton until my friend became tired of listen
ing to it and walked away A few days
later he was in the same wood, and dis
covered, in rather small tree, a nest of
sticks, about twenty-five feet from the
ground. He assembled to the nest. which
had been built close to the main stem of
the tree, and found, upon lining of moss,
two whitish eggs, spotted and blotched
with brown. They were nearly two inches
in length, and were evidently the property
of pair of broad-winged hawks; probably
the very pair he had seen in that vicinity
less than week before. So he came down,
leaving the nest undisturbed. After that he
visited that wood about once a week, and
usually found one of the old birds on the
nest. Sometimes 1T was the male, and
sometimes the female, for both birds
seemed to have equal responsibilities. They
paid no attention to their visitor who
walked about under the tree, gazing at
the barred breast and tail of whichever
bird happened to be sitting at the time.
One day he came, and found both birds
away, and ascending the tree, saw three
downy young hawks. For weeks the parent
birds fed these helpless nestlings catching
large insects, frogs, mice and many other
small creatures to stay their hunger. BY
and by the fedglings ready to leave
the nest, and my friend quietly took them
away and shipped them to me that might
study their habits for while.
For about month kept them in a large