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Show CONSERVATION MEN OBSERVE WILD LIFE DRAMA ON DUTY BOISE (Special; Conservation 'officers of the Idaho Fish and Game Department spend considerable consider-able time patrolling their areas ami in doing so have excellent opportunities oppor-tunities to observe nature nnd to witness some of the fights-tor-life put up by creatures of the wild. Take for example the unusual battle royal watched by District Conservation Officer John Dolo, of Soda Springs, and Irvin Weath-erbee, Weath-erbee, driver of the fish truck from the American Falls Hatchery. The two men were planting a load of fish in Bear river above Montpelior one day last week when suddenly they were interrupted by the screeching cries of a couple of Red-Tailed Hawks. Stopping their work, they looked upward and saw the hawks engaged en-gaged in a fierce dog-fight about 200 feet up in the air. One of the hawks seemed to be carrying something in its craws, and the invading hawk apparently had ideas of possessing that object. Going into what might be termed a "power dive," the invader hooked hook-ed onto the object and both birds plummeted down, and over end, crashing to the earth about 10U yards from where the men stood. In striking the earth, both hawks appeared momentarily stunned. One of them relaxed its grrp on The object because it looked as tnough he had hurt his left wing in the melee. The two men started toward to-ward the battlers, but before they had gone 20 feet, feathers were flying and the next round was taking tak-ing place on the ground. Using their sharp claws and pointed beaks as weapons, both hawks were trying for that knockout knock-out hiow. " Suddenly one of the hawks started start-ed to fly again; gaining some altitude, alti-tude, he headed back and dove on his adversary still on the ground. This apparently was the blow that decided the fight, fori his opponent was lying on the ground, fluttering and trying to get to its feet. Tho fight was over. The uninjured hawk snatched the object of the battle a small ground squirrel and started for his nest. The remaining hawk was too exhausted to pursue any further. fur-ther. Last month two conservation officers of-ficers watched another nawic fly to its nest in Gem county carrying a rather long object Upon investigation, investi-gation, they found it to be an IS-inch IS-inch rattlesnake still very much alive. Also found in the nest were a dozen field mice and a couple of gophers. Mr. and Mrs. Ray Greenhalgh and children of Mt. Emmons, Utah, returned home Saturday after spending the week at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Owen N. Gibson. |
