2 Frightful Goes to Falcon School

Frightful turned back. Chup chased her. He made an awe-inspiring loop and cruised upside down beneath her. Gently he held her talons again, and a new feeling brightened Frightful's mood. "Chup, chup, chup," the tiercel called as he flew ahead of her. This time Frightful caught up with him. They flew in tandem above the Schoharie Valley. IN WHICH Frightful Goes to Falcon School Chup led Frightful higher and higher, to the misty "bottom of a fair-weather cumulus cloud. Frightful left him. The füzziness of clouds, even thin clouds, was distracting to her. She liked clear air. Soaring back toward the escarpment, she scanned twenty miles in all directions for the one mountain where the one gigantic tree grew. She did not see the mountain. From out of nowhere bulleted the

弗莱特转身往回飞。 查普追着她。 他翻了个壮观的大回旋，倒着滑翔在她身下。 他又轻轻握住她的爪，一股新奇的感觉点亮了弗莱特的心情。 "恰普，恰普，恰普，" 雄游隼飞在她前头叫着。 这回弗莱特追上了他。 他们并排飞在斯科哈里谷的上空。 本章：弗莱特去猎鹰学校 查普带着弗莱特越飞越高，飞到了晴日积云蒙着薄雾的"云底。 弗莱特离开了他。 云团朦朦胧胧的，哪怕是薄云，也让她没法集中注意力。 她喜欢澄澈干净的空气。 她往悬崖方向滑翔回去，扫视着方圆二十英里，寻找那座长着巨树的山。 她没有找到那座山。 不知从哪儿猛地冲出来

female goshawk. Frightful shot up into the protection of Chup's cloud. The goshawk turned back. "Chup!" The tiercel appeared in the mist, flew close to her, then dove earthward at a steep angle. Again his "chup" touched some deep peregrine memory in her, and she followed the daring tiercel. Seconds later he thrust out his feet and landed on a cliff ledge. Frightful thrust out her feet and came down not far from him. She was on a stony rampart above the Schoharie River. The cliff and the river spoke to her of her first home and her parents. She held her wings to her body and stacked her tail feathers. She was agitated. The scene was familiar and unfamiliar. Chup walked toward her, lowering his head in deference to the greater size and power of the female peregrine. "Cree," she responded, and relaxed. But for size and Frightful's almost black head and cheek straps, Frightful and Chup looked alike. Both had large black-brown eyes, set deeply under flat foreheads. Their beaks were ebony black with

一只雌苍鹰。 弗莱特猛地往上冲，躲进了查普待的云里。 苍鹰转身飞走了。 "查普！" 雄游隼从雾里钻出来，飞到她身边，接着猛地朝地面俯冲下去。 他的"恰普"叫声又一次唤醒了弗莱特骨子里游隼的记忆，她跟着这只大胆的雄隼飞了起来。 没一会儿他伸出脚，落在了悬崖的一处岩台上。 弗莱特也伸出脚，落在了离他不远的地方。 她待的地方是斯科哈里河上方一处石质崖壁。 悬崖和河流让她想起了自己的第一个家，还有爸爸妈妈。 她把翅膀收拢贴在身上，叠好尾羽。 她心里七上八下的。 这里既熟悉又陌生。 查普朝她走来，低下头，尊重体形更大、更强壮的雌游隼。 "克利，" 她回应着，放松了下来。 除了体形，还有弗莱特近乎全黑的头部和颊纹，弗莱特和查普长得几乎一模一样。 他俩都长着大大的棕黑色眼睛，深深陷在平整的额头下。 它们的喙是乌黑色的，带着

saffron-yellow nares. White throats and cheek patches shimmered above pale breast feathers stippled with black flecks. Their wings were long and graceful instruments of speed. They sat erect. They held their heads high. Their beings were lit with an inner flame and, at the same time, the cold stillness of ice. They were the royalty of birds. Frightful quickly took in her situation. The cliff was about sixty feet high and set back from the river. The land below was bottomland, where red maples, trees of the wetlands, grew. Geese and ducks paddled among cattails and sedges that lined the river's edge. Bank swallows popped in and out of nest holes on the far riverbank. Directly below the aerie was a pine tree where two blue jays had built a stick nest. In it were four scrawny nestlings. Chup let them live. They were part of his aerie community, like the flowers and the huckleberries. Frightful had arrived in perfect peregrine habitat. She was only vaguely aware of this. Almost her whole life had been spent with Sam on a mountain. Sam and his forest and abandoned meadow were her habitat.

藏红花色的鼻孔。 白白的喉部和颊斑，在布满黑色细点的浅色胸羽上方闪着光。 它们的翅膀修长优美，是速度的利器。 他们挺直身子坐着。 他们高高昂着头。 它们的骨子里既有一团燃烧的火焰，又有着寒冰般的冷寂。 它们是鸟类中的王者。 弗莱特很快看清了自己身处的环境。 这处悬崖大约六十英尺高，位置离河岸有一段距离。 悬崖下方是河滩洼地，长着湿地树种红枫。 鹅和鸭子在河岸边长满香蒲和莎草的水域划水。 岸燕在对岸河岸的巢穴洞口进进出出。 鹰巢正下方有一棵松树，两只冠蓝鸦在上面搭了个树枝巢。 巢里有四只瘦巴巴的雏鸟。 查普没有伤害它们。 它们和野花、越橘一样，都是这个鹰巢群落的一份子。 弗莱特来到了一处绝美的游隼栖息地。 她自己只是隐隐约约察觉到这一点。 她这辈子几乎都和山姆一起在山里生活。 山姆、他的森林和废弃的草地就是她的栖息地。

She looked at Chup. He bowed his head to her. His respect awoke Frightful to action. She stretched her neck high. She lifted her feathers to look larger and therefore more beautiful to the tiercel. With this feather talk she told Chup she was bonding with him. She felt a closeness to this pleasant member of her species. Then a slight movement provoked her to peer behind Chup. Three young peregrine falcons stared at her. The eyases sat on their bums, legs stretched out in front of them. They were very young, no more than a week old. Their plump bodies were covered with white down; their beaks and feet were gray like the rocks. They were huddled on bare earth in the middle of a garden of pink blazing-star flowers. "Psee psee," each one cried. "Feed me." The sound stirred a new feeling in Frightful. She leaned down as if to pluck food, then, not knowing what came next, she stared at Chup.

她看着查普。 他向她低下了头。 他的尊重唤起了弗莱特，让她有所行动。 她把脖子伸得高高的。 她撑开羽毛，让自己看起来更大，这样在雄隼眼里也更漂亮。 用这种羽毛的语言，她告诉查普自己愿意和他相伴。 她对这位讨人喜欢的同类伙伴感到十分亲近。 这时一点轻微的动静，让她朝查普身后望去。 三只年幼的游隼正盯着她看。 这些幼雏屁股着地，腿直直伸在身前。 它们特别小，出生还不到一周。 它们圆滚滚的身子长满白色绒毛，喙和脚都是石头一样的灰色。 它们挤在粉色流星花丛中央的裸地上。 "普西，普西，" 每只小家伙都叫着。 "喂我呀。" 这叫声在弗莱特心里唤起了一种全新的感觉。 她俯下身像是要去啄食物，可不知道接下来该做什么，就盯着查普。

Chup picked up a half-eaten duck and delicately snipped off a small bite. Folding his talons under his toes, he walked to an eyas and placed the morsel in her open mouth. He pulled off another bite and then another, feeding the chick until she was quiet. When the other two called "psee," he fed them morsel by morsel, patiently, devotedly. Frightful watched, her own terrible hunger mounting. When the wobbly eyases stopped eating, Chup broke off a bite of duck and offered it to Frightful. She swallowed ravenously and waited. She was back in her pattern with Sam. When Sam fed her she waited to see if he was going to give her just a bite and take her hunting again, or carry her home to feast and rest. Chup was not part of this routine. He offered no more bites, nor did he take her

查普叼起一只吃了一半的鸭子，小心地剪下一小块肉。 他把爪收在脚底下，走到一只雏鸟身边，把小块肉放进它张开的嘴里。 他剪下一块又一块，喂得雏鸟不再叫唤了。 另外两只叫"普西"的时候，他就一块一块喂它们，耐心又温柔。 弗莱特看着，自己肚子饿得越来越厉害。 摇摇晃晃的雏鸟们吃饱后，查普撕下一块鸭肉，递给了弗莱特。 她狼吞虎咽地吞下去，等着接下来的动作。 她又想起了和山姆在一起的习惯。 从前山姆喂她的时候，她会等着看：山姆是只给她一口、再带她去打猎，还是带她回家大吃一顿再休息。 查普没有按这个习惯来。 他没再给她肉，也没有带她

hunting. Instead he left. He flew off to do as the peregrine tiercel must do—hunt for his mate and young, until the chicks were well feathered and could keep themselves warm without being brooded. When that happened, the female mate would join in the hunt. Not Frightful. She looked at the duck Chup had left. According to Sam's training, it was hers. Gingerly at first, then ravenously, she fed herself. Death by starvation comes quickly to a bird of prey, and strength returns as quickly. With each bite her eyes began to glisten with energy, and, like a flame, she soon flickered and stood tall. Vitality restored, she lifted one wing and stretched it as far as it would reach. Then she stretched the other, wiped her beak, and sat contentedly. Two days ago Chup's first mate, mother of the chicks, had flown out to stretch and exercise after days of inactivity. She had not come back. When several hours had passed and the chicks were screaming, Chup knew she had been killed. That afternoon he searched for another mate. The eyases must live. He called the love song over cliff and river. No female appeared.

去捕猎。 他还是离开了。 他飞走了，去做游隼雄鸟该做的事——为伴侣和孩子捕猎，直到幼鸟长出丰满羽毛，不用孵抱也能自己保暖。 等幼鸟能自己保暖后，雌鸟就会加入捕猎了。 芙莱芙可不是这样。 她看着查普留下的鸭子。 按照萨姆教她的，这就是她的食物了。 一开始她还小心翼翼，后来就狼吞虎咽地吃了起来。 猛禽饿起来死得很快，补回体力也很快。 每吃一口，她眼睛里就重新泛起精光，像一簇火苗，很快她就抖了抖身子，站直了身体。 体力恢复后，她抬起一只翅膀，尽可能地伸展开。 接着她又伸了另一只翅膀，蹭了蹭喙，满足地坐了下来。 两天前，查普的第一任伴侣，也就是这些幼隼的妈妈，在窝待了好几天后飞出去舒展身体活动筋骨。 再也没有回来。 几个小时过去，幼隼们饿得直叫，查普明白她已经遇害了。 那天下午，他开始寻找新的伴侣。 幼隼们必须活下来。 他飞过悬崖和河流，唱起求爱的歌。 没有雌隼出现。