The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-10-16
NlMROD THE HAWK.

r AM not sure that Nimrod ever knew
what name we had given him, or,
indeed. that he a any name at
all. Without being aware of 1t, he was
the chief object of interest with us
during one long, delightful summer in
kthe country. We never had our hands
on him, and / suppose he did not ever
know we were there. He would have
been rather undesirable as a pet, for
his talons We're formidable, and his
curved beak and his fierce amber eyes
and his splendid wings belonged to the
wild free air and the dizzy heights
above. People called him cruel and
rapacious, but he killed only what he
and his little ones needed to eat; and
the same cannot always be said of
men.
Nimrod was a hawk, with feathers
russet red and incredible swiftness of
wing, together with wonderful ease in
darting, wheeling. dropping straight
down, or rising almost perpendicularly
from the ground. Among all the birds
we watched that summer, Nimrod was
the most graceful, and knew best what
to do with his wings.
A-little way up from the farmhouse
was. an old field, grown up with thick
ciumps of hawthorn bushes, and this
was Nimrod's favorite hunting ground.
Lying hidden behind the orchard fence
we watched him come out to his morn
ing's chase; flying negligently over at
first, as though he were simply out for
an airing, and were not thinking about
breakfast; sometimes sending out the
changing cry that strikes terror to all
smaller creatures. The ome he APP
peared, or his harsh cry broke the still
ness, a frightened commotion generally
became visible in the open field below.
Birds fed to cover, and here and there
want a scurrying rabbit. crouching It
last under the shelter of a hawthorn
clump, where he felt that his enemy
could neither see nor reach him.
But Nimrod was not through with
them yet-no indeed! Having fright
ened them into hiding, he went deliber-
ately to work to %frighten them out
again. Down he dropped upon any
clump of pushes where he had seen any
thing hide. and in a he was
lowering over 1t and beating the
branches with his wings. If he had
been possessed of the inest reasoning
powers, he could hardly have done
better.
If the quarry were q bird, 1t darted
out in a panic, poor little trembling
thing; and sometimes escaped: but
oftener the birds were caught n de-
voured with scant ceremony. Once we
saw a little brown bird fly out of a bush
thar the hawk was beating, and almost
instantly drop dead-killed by abject
terror. What awful sensations those
must have been in birdland when MINI
rod was abroad!
If a rabbit We're under the bush, it
clung to its shelter and was harder to
d~islodge. One could fancy it crouched
down there, close to the ground, it's
body shaken by the wild Beating of its
heart, its ears laid back, its soft eyes
big with fear, while Nimrod's great
wings were beating over and around it.
Such panic, agony could not be EN-
dured long. The rabbit was up and
away, and perhaps 1t gained the helte
of another bush, but that gave 1t only
a short respite. In all our watching
we saw Nimrod lose only four or five
rabbits, and doubtless they lived only
to be caught another day.
There. were times, however, when
N'mrod's preliminary survey of the field
amounted to nothing. Perhaps his in
tended prey had received warning Of
his coming and betaken themselves V