John came home one evening from a ramble in the country with a
peach-box under his arm. He set the box very carefully on the back
porch and then sat down himself on the top of the box.
His mother was watering some geraniums in a bed near by and paused in
her work to look at the lad.
"Where did you get those peaches, John?" she asked, coming toward him
with a pleasant smile.
John gave a low laugh. "This is a peach _box_, mother," he said, "but
if what is in it is a _peach_, it belongs to a new variety, I think.
Look at him, he is a beauty!"
"John Bonham, I hope you have not brought another pet to this house!
Where in the world are we to stow away all these creatures on one
little town lot? There is your groundhog, your owl, the crow, the coot,
the tub of fish, the big dog, the little dog, and three Christopher
Columbus cats."
"Now, mother, please stop; poor Chuck stays most of the time in his
hole under the corner of the house, and the owl keeps the mice out of
the cellar, and Jim Crow has not stolen anything for a month except
that half dollar and your piece of lace and sister's red ribbon. You
said I might have the wash boiler to make a swimming-pool for the coot,
and I am going to feed the fish to him, so they will soon be gone and
you can have your tub again. I heard you tell Mrs. Bland that our
dogs guarded the whole neighborhood from burglars, and my Christopher
Columbus cats are cute enough for anyone to be glad to have them. Mrs.
Goodall says she 'wants one of them real bad.' You see, mother," said
John, persuasively, "this fellow was such a beauty I just had to bring
him home. Jake Timmons shot him through the wing as he was carrying
off a dove; he was going to wring the hawk's head off, but I told him
I would give him ten cents for it, for I wanted to try an experiment
with the bird. I know I can tame him and make a pet of him; see, he can
move around even if his wing is broken."
John's mother looked through the bars of the peach crate and saw a
full-grown hawk with a beautiful brown head, eyes with blood-red rims,
a strong, hooked beak, and long talons which he struck angrily into the
stick John thrust at him through the bars.
"I never saw a more fierce, cruel-looking bird," she said. "See him
tear at that stick! He will be tearing you next."
"I shall give him no chance to tear me, mother, for I intend to tame
him."
"You might as well try to tame a tiger."
"Well, I am going to try taming him," said John, in a low, determined
tone. When his mother heard him speak in that way she knew his mind was
made up to succeed, and he had never yet failed in taming any of his
pets.
John put the hawk in his dog-house, the front of which was formed of
strong iron bars, and the next day his mother saw him sitting before
this improvised bird-cage, going through some fantastic motions with
his hands and gently chirping to the bird. No accident happened to the
young naturalist in his care of the hawk, and gradually his mother
ceased to think of it.
One afternoon, about three weeks after this, the family were seated
on the piazza when they were startled at seeing John come around the
corner of the house bearing the hawk on his wrist. Over the bird's head
was drawn a gay-colored hood adorned with tiny bells and tassels--John
had read how hawks were dressed in medieval times, and had made the
hood himself. A long string was tied to one of the hawk's legs, and,
setting the bird down gently, the boy tied the string to a small tree.
All were watching him to see what he would do next, and all kept
silence as he lifted a warning hand and uttered a low "H-u-s-h!" He
then removed the hood from the bird's head, when it immediately began
tearing at the string, snapping viciously at objects near it, and
running to and fro in an excited and angry manner.
John seated himself on the ground before the bird and began clucking
to it softly, with the index finger of his right hand extended and
pointing straight at the bird's eyes; then he turned quietly in
whichever direction the bird moved, slowly waving his hand round and
round in a circle and never taking his eyes off the bird's eyes.
Gradually the hawk ceased to run about, then stood still gazing
steadily, as though fascinated, at John's finger. It would shut its
eyes slowly, then open them suddenly, only to shut them again more
slowly than before. At first the bird stood perfectly erect; then
its head began gradually falling over on its shoulder, and, without
any warning, it tumbled backwards, its eyes shut, its legs sticking
straight up in the air, its body perfectly rigid. John continued for
a time to wave his hand in a circle with the index finger extended;
then he walked over to the porch leaving the hawk on the ground,
where he lay for nearly thirty minutes, when he gradually returned to
consciousness.
A number of persons walking by had stopped in the street to look at
John and the bird, and now exclamations of surprise were heard as they
saw the actions of the hawk.
"What did you do to that bird?" asked a gentleman of John; "I never in
my life witnessed so strange a performance."
"I call that hypnotism," said the lad. "I have been working with him
every day since I brought him home, and for a week I have never failed
to bring him under my influence and put him to sleep in this way. If I
go to the cage to feed him, he flies at me in a great rage at first,
but if I pass my finger in a circle before him several times he becomes
quiet, and will take a mouse from my hand without biting or tearing me
with his talons. Sometimes I partly hypnotize him and lay the mouse at
his feet, and although he may be very hungry he will not touch the
food until I let him out from under the influence of my finger. When he
is over being hypnotized he is as fierce as he was when I brought him
home, and I do not believe he can ever be made tame like other birds.
Perhaps if I had captured him when he was young, with the down still on
him, I could have tamed him, but now he is too old and fierce."
"Well, my lad," said one of the men, laughing, "if he is not tamed you
have him pretty well under your thumb and finger at least."
John's wonderful hypnotic influence over the hawk was soon known
throughout the town and crowds of people often gathered to see him go
through this truly wonderful feat of hypnotizing the fierce hawk.
The hawk belongs to the family of the _Falconidæ_, which is so called
from the Latin word _falcis_, meaning a scythe, the talons of the
_Falconidæ_ being curved in the form of a scythe, thus giving the name
to the species.
The wings of the hawk are so short they do not extend to the tip of
the tail, for which reason it is called an ignoble bird of prey, to
distinguish it from the true falcon, the wings of which extend to the
tip of the tail and which is called a noble bird of prey. The hawk's
bill is short, curved from the base, often terminating in a sharp point
called a tooth. They have rather short, exceedingly strong legs and
long incurved talons with which they tear their prey.
The species are numerous and widely distributed over the world; the
goshawk and the sparrowhawk are the best known and most important. The
hawk is a diurnal bird of prey, which means that it hunts in the day
time. It flies with exceeding swiftness, having been known to travel a
distance of 1,350 miles in twenty-four hours.
The hawk has very acute vision; hence the expression, "Keen-eyed as a
hawk." It soars to a great height, always endeavoring to get above the
bird it is pursuing in order to swoop down upon it from above. It soars
in a series of arcs and against the wind, which helps it to rise as it
does a kite. The hawk does not attack its prey with its beak, as is
generally supposed, but with its talons. After securing its prey by
swooping on it and fastening its claws in its victim it gently descends
to the ground.
The young hawk yet in the nest is called an eyas, one that can hop is
a brancher, and a young hawk able to catch game is called a soar hawk.
Young hawks taken in flying are called passage hawks, and the training
of these is called reclaiming.
Hawking was for many years a sport followed by kings and the nobility
in Europe. It is of very ancient origin, having been followed in Asia
and Europe before the time of the Christian era.
The hawk builds its nest in the forks of a tree or on some inaccessible
cliff. The female is larger than the male and lays two or three eggs.