pmunks and squirrels. Farther and farther he was
compelled to hunt the surrounding farms and woods to keep up with the
demands of the hawk. By the time the hawk was ready to fly, it had
consumed twenty-one chipmunks, fourteen red squirrels, sixteen mice, and
twelve English sparrows, besides a great deal of butcher's meat.

His plumage very soon began to show itself, crowding off tufts of the
down. The quills on his great wings sprouted and grew apace. What a
ragged, uncanny appearance he presented! but his look of extreme age
gradually became modified. What a lover of the sunlight he was! We would
put him out upon the grass in the full blaze of the morning sun, and he
would spread his wings and bask in it with the most intense enjoyment.
In the nest the young must be exposed to the full power of the midday
sun during our first heated terms in June and July, the thermometer
often going up to ninety-three or ninety-five degrees, so that sunshine
seemed to be a need of his nature. He liked the rain equally well, and
when put out in a shower would sit down and take it as if every drop did
him good.

His legs developed nearly as slowly as his wings. He could not stand
steadily upon them till about ten days before he was ready to fly. The
talons were limp and feeble. When we came with food, he would hobble
along toward us like the worst kind of a cripple, drooping and moving
his wings, and treading upon his legs from the foot back to the elbow,
the foot remaining closed and useless. Like a baby learning to stand, he
made many trials before he succeeded. He would rise up on his trembling
legs only to fall back again.

One day, in the summer-house, I saw him for the first time stand for a
moment squarely upon his legs with the feet fully spread beneath them.
He looked about him as if the world suddenly wore a new aspect.

His plumage now grew quite rapidly. One red squirrel a day, chopped fine
with an axe, was his ration. He began to hold his game with his foot
while he tore it. The study was full of his shed down. His dark-brown
mottled plumage began to grow beautiful. The wings drooped a little, but
gradually he got control of them, and held them in place.

It was now the 20th of July, and the hawk was about five weeks old. In a
day or two he was walking or jumping about the grounds. He chose a
position under the edge of a Norway spruce, where he would sit for hours
dozing, or looking out upon the landscape. When we broug