$epLo 1908
':.: :...: : .
A FAMII, Y OF YOLTNG DUCK IIAWI,[S.' : ..- '..- -....- or four days ahead of the smallest in strength, weight and wit. This large one was inclined to seize everything he could when it came meal time; in fact each one was always ready to grab anything he could out of the mouths of the others. I gave them plenty to eat and most of their time was spent in sleeping and eating, so they grew amazingly. In five days they almost doubled in weight, hav- ing reached nine, eleven and one-half and twelve ounces, respectively. During the month following, they traveled several hundred nfiles on board the launch, but a rough sea seemed only to improve their appetites. They were not particular as to their food as long as it was fresh meat, except that they preferred bird bodies to mice. On June 30 they weighed twelve, eighteen and twenty ounces. They had tremendous appetites and could eat almost their own weight of meat every day. At this time the largest one began to develop a few dark pin feathers and one day he discovered what his feet were made for. On July 6 the hawks weighed twenty, twenty-three mid twenty-five ounces each. The largest one was now learning to flop his wings mid hop down the hill, BROOD OF VOUNG DUCK IGA?,VKS TAKEN FROM NEST NEAR KILLISNOO, ALASKA, JUNE 16, 1907 and once he uttered a geuuine duck hawk cry. From this time they did not in- crease much in weight but went mostly to feathers. A few days previous to this the middle-sized one becmne listless and refused to eat. This indicated that there must be something radically wrong with him, as his appetite had been the biggest thing about the bird. As time went on he grew worse instead of better and would just stand around and squall most of the time, still refusing food. Even two large doses of castor oil did not seem to improve his condition. On the eighth of the month I decided that it would be more merci- ful to kill the bird than to permit it to starve to death. A post mortem revealed the cause of the trouble. Its stomach was distended to the utmost capacity with hair, shot, moss, and other foreign substances of such a nature that they would not form pellets that could be thrown up. I was away from camp for a week soon after this and upon my return could scarcely believe that such a change could have been wrought in so short a time. Instead of a frayed-out, half fuzzy, half feathered bird, the largest duck hawk was now a beautiful falcon with clean bright plumage and a general clear-cut neat ap-
