. Half hours with fishes, reptiles, and birds . ntry to have been killed in New York State with freshrice in their crops which must have been obtained sevenhundred miles away in Georgia. When the Dutch de-stroyed the nutmeg groves on all the East India islandsexcept Great Banda, they found that the pigeons carriednuts to the various islands faster than they could pickthem up and destroy them. BIRDS OF PREY The dove, of all birds, forms a sharp contrast to the fierce birds which live by preying upon others, dead or alive. The very appearance of the hawk or eagle suggests rapine.
. Half hours with fishes, reptiles, and birds . ntry to have been killed in New York State with freshrice in their crops which must have been obtained sevenhundred miles away in Georgia. When the Dutch de-stroyed the nutmeg groves on all the East India islandsexcept Great Banda, they found that the pigeons carriednuts to the various islands faster than they could pickthem up and destroy them. BIRDS OF PREY The dove, of all birds, forms a sharp contrast to the fierce birds which live by preying upon others, dead or alive. The very appearance of the hawk or eagle suggests rapine. The eye is fierce, the beak is powerful and curved (Fig. 174), and the claws (Fig. 175) are sharp and capable of grasping prey and holding „ , _ it with a most tenacious grasp. Fig. 174. —Hawks Beak. to r They are rarely amenable tokindness. I have had several sparrow hawks which Iattempted to tame. They fed from my hand, but werealways ready to turn on me. A condor was more amen-able, allowing me to scratch its head; but a so-called pet,. BIRDS OF PREY 201 a monkey-faced owl, never failed to strike at me with itsterrible claws, all the while uttering a diabolical asthmaticsound. The visitor to Charles-ton, South Carolina, willbe interested in the tur-key buzzards (Fig. 176),which are protected bylaw and are the scaven-gers of the city, eating allthe refuse thrown them,an altogether disgustingbird, yet valuable in warmcountries. Their sense ofsmell is wonderfullyacute. In Southern Cali-fornia dead or dying ani-mals can always be found by watch-ing the buzzards, which can detectseemingly the slightest evil South American con-dor (Fig. 177) is the larg-est of all flying birds,specimens having beenseen, according to Byam,with a spread of wing offifteen feet. This splen-did bird makes its homein the Andes, and is oftenseen high in air over theFig. Buzzard. loftiest peaks. It doubt-
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1906
