4 The Wilderness Tests the Eyases

cliff. The air was cold at the top of the thermal, and the warm bubble vanished. Drum fell earthward. He hit the ground, spreading his wings and tail to cushion his fall. Drum got to his feet and ran to a bush. From the bush he flew to a cedar tree, and from the cedar tree to an oak at the edge of the cliff-top woods. He flew, hopped, climbed to its crown, and looked down on the vast valley the river had carved. He saw Frightful on her stub and let out a wild call for food. Chup answered from above. He dove, scattered a flock of ducks, and brought one back to the aerie. He dropped it without slowing down, then flew over the cliff, over Frightful, over Drum, over the woods, and out of sight. IN WHICH The Wilderness Tests the Eyases

悬崖边。 热气流顶端冷空气袭人，暖空气泡消散了。 德拉姆朝地面坠去。 摔到地面时，他张开翅膀和尾巴缓冲了坠落的冲击力。 德拉姆站起身，跑向一丛灌木。 他从灌木飞到雪松上，又从雪松飞到崖顶树林边的一棵橡树上。 他飞着、跳着爬到树冠顶端，俯瞰河流冲刷出的辽阔山谷。 他看见福莱特福待在树桩上，便大声叫着要食物。 查普从上方回应了他。 他俯冲下去，惊散一群鸭子，抓了一只带回了鹰巢。 他没减速就把鸭子丢下，接着飞过悬崖，飞过福莱特福，飞过德拉姆，飞过树林，消失不见了。 本章：荒野考验幼鹰们

Frightful watched Chup wing over her pine stub at the edge of the cliff. She had no desire to follow him. Her attention was riveted on the fledglings. Duchess was in a red maple, Lady was out of sight in the fern bed, and Drum was perched in an oak tree behind her. Not one could reach the food she and Chup had dropped in the aerie—unless they flew. No peregrine instincts told Frightful how to get the fledglings on wing. She sat and waited until it became too dark to see. Lady awoke hungry. She was cold and wet. She shivered as she shook the water from her body and wings. Flapping hard, she struggled to fly out of the fern bed. Duchess, on the other hand, did not seem to care if she ever flew again. She was comfortable. A dove flew past her. She focused on it with keen interest. A robin sang. She stared at it, then settled dreamily on her limb. Drum had another agenda. Seeing his mother on the pine stub, he called pitifully, "Pseeeee pseee." She did not look at him. Desperately hungry, he jumped toward her, spread his wings, and was

福莱特福看着查普掠过悬崖边她的松桩。 她一点也不想跟着他走。 她的注意力全拴在幼鹰们身上。 杜奇待在红枫上，蕾迪藏在蕨丛里看不见，德拉姆停在她身后的橡树上。 除非它们飞起来，否则谁都够不到她和查普丢在鹰巢里的食物。 游隼的本能也没告诉福莱特福该怎么催幼鹰学飞。 她就坐着等候，一直等到天黑得看不见东西。 蕾迪饿醒了。 她又冷又湿。 她浑身发抖，抖掉身体和翅膀上的水珠。 她用力拍打着翅膀，挣扎着想飞出蕨丛。 可另一边的杜奇，看起来根本不在乎自己会不会飞。 她待得舒服极了。 一只鸽子从她身边飞过。 她饶有兴致地盯着鸽子看。 一只知更鸟唱起歌。 她盯着知更鸟看了会儿，又懒洋洋地伏在树枝上。 德拉姆有别的打算。 看见妈妈在松桩上，他可怜巴巴地叫着：“希——希——” 她看都不看他一眼。 他饿得要命，朝着妈妈跳过去，张开翅膀，便

sailing like a paper airplane toward the ground. He hit the grass and stopped, kakak-ing in fear. Frightful heard him but did not answer. An ancient peregrine instinct was finally guiding her—do not feed the fledglings. Drum hunkered down where he was for most of the day. As evening approached, he lifted his feathers to keep warm. A damp, cold wind rolled along the ground and over him. Drum hopped into a huckleberry patch at the edge of the cliff and lay down on his stomach. Frightful closed her eyes. The flatness of the stub under her feet reminded her of her home perch. She could see her mountain, the hemlock, and Sam. Her mothering was coming to an end. At dawn the next day she looked about. She preened, then touched the gland near the top of her tail and lubricated her dry feathers with its oils. She glistened. A heartfelt "pseee" from the cliff top reached her ears. Drum thrashed out of the brambles into view. He saw Frightful and cried again. She stared and sat still.

像纸飞机一样朝着地面滑翔而去。 他摔在草地上停住，害怕地“卡卡”叫个不停。 福莱特福听见了，却没有回应。 游隼古老的本能终于指引着她——不能给幼鹰喂食。 大半天里，德拉姆都蹲在原地不敢动。 夜幕将近，他蓬起羽毛来保暖。 一股湿冷的风贴着地面吹过来，裹住了他。 德拉姆跳进悬崖边的越橘丛，趴在了地上。 福莱特福闭上了眼睛。 脚下平坦的树桩让她想起了家里的栖木。 她仿佛能看见她的山、铁杉，还有山姆。 她当妈妈的日子就要结束了。 第二天破晓时分，她环顾四周。 她梳理了羽毛，蹭了蹭尾根附近的油脂腺，用油脂滋润干燥的羽毛。 她的羽毛变得油亮光滑。 悬崖边传来一声真切的“希”，飘进了她的耳朵。 德拉姆冲出荆棘丛，出现在她眼前。 他看见福莱特福，又叫了一声。 她只是盯着他，一动不动地坐着。

Drum's "psee" became an Angry "kak, kak" that tripped him into action. He beat his wings and took off. He dropped—down, down, down. He alighted on the aerie, scattering the seeds of the blazing-star flowers with the blast of air from his wings. With a hop and two flaps, he was upon the rabbit. Duchess saw Drum eating. She spread her wings, soared out of the red maple, and landed with a thud close to him. He lifted his feathers to scare her, but she was bigger, and bigness is boss in the peregrine's world. Duchess grabbed his food. Then she saw the duck. She preferred bird to mammal and jumped on the duck. Running, covering, walking, she took it behind the blazing- star garden and ate ravenously. Lady, who was at the foot of the cliff, was cold and losing weight rapidly. "Psee," Lady called over and over. Neither father nor mother came to her rescue. She fluffed her feathers to warm her body and sat still to conserve energy. When Drum had eaten his fill, he walked toward Duchess. She lifted her wings and chased him to

德拉姆的“希”变成了愤怒的“卡卡”，这叫声推着他动了起来。 他拍动翅膀，飞了起来。 他往下坠呀坠，一直往下坠。 他落在鹰巢上，翅膀带起的风吹散了麒麟草的种子。 跳一下，拍两下翅膀，他就扑到了兔子身上。 杜奇看见德拉姆在吃东西。 她张开翅膀，飞出红枫树，咚的一声落在他旁边。 他蓬起羽毛想吓走她，可杜奇体形更大，在游隼的世界里，体形大就是老大。 杜奇抢走了他的食物。 接着她看见了那只鸭子。 比起哺乳动物，她更喜欢鸟类，于是扑向了鸭子。 她拖着食物连跑带躲，把鸭子弄到麒麟草花园后面，狼吞虎咽地吃了起来。 此时待在悬崖脚下的蕾迪，又冷，体重还在飞快下降。 “希，”蕾迪一遍又一遍地叫着。 爸爸妈妈都没有来救她。 她蓬起羽毛取暖，一动不动坐着保存体力。 德拉姆吃饱后，朝杜奇走了过去。 她张开翅膀，把他追到了

the edge of the aerie. She screamed, "Kak, kak, kak," and he took off. He soared over the trees, tilted one wing, and found himself headed for the cliff. He pulled up on his tail, down on his wings, and was climbing. He came over the top of the cliff and steered to his oak tree. Drum was flying. Duchess, alone and full of food, sat in the clumps of blazing-star flowers and stared down on the blue-green landscape. Her sharp eyes widened. Far away she saw a gray fox. He was walking along a tree that had fallen across a meandering stream. The slender animal stopped at a limb, then walked down it and jumped to the ground. He disappeared in the fern garden. Duchess looked away from the fox. He was too big to be food. She walked to the edge of the aerie. Suddenly she spread her wings, was lifted by an updraft of wind, and spiraled skyward on a warm thermal. As she balanced herself with wings, feet, and tail, she felt the new and wonderful sensation of flight. The thermal collapsed, and Duchess fell landward, alighting on the limb of an enormous sycamore tree near the river. Birds were all around her—on

鹰巢的边缘。 她尖叫着：“卡卡卡”，他便飞了出去。 他在树林上方翱翔，偏了偏一只翅膀，发现自己正朝着悬崖飞去。 他翘起尾巴，压下翅膀，开始往高处攀升。 他飞过悬崖顶端，朝着自己的橡树飞去。 德拉姆会飞了。 杜奇独自填饱了肚子，坐在麒麟花丛里，俯瞰着蓝绿色的大地。 她锐利的眼睛睁得大大的。 她远远看见了一只灰狐。 灰狐正沿着横架在蜿蜒溪流上的倒树往前走。 这个苗条的小家伙在一根树枝旁停下，顺着树枝走下去，跳到了地上。 他消失在蕨类园地里。 杜奇移开了盯着灰狐的目光。 他太大了，当不了食物。 她走到鹰巢的边缘。 突然，她张开翅膀，被上升气流托了起来，顺着暖热气流盘旋着飞向天空。 当她用翅膀、脚和尾巴保持平衡时，她感受到了飞行带来的全新奇妙感受。 热气流消散了，杜奇朝着陆地坠落，最后落在河边一棵大悬铃木的树枝上。 鸟儿围绕在她身边——在

the water, in the reeds, in the trees and sky. She stared at the different kinds. Each species moved differently. Ducks ran on the surface of the water to get airborne. Pigeons banked and turned en masse in the sky. Swallows dipped and darted. Rails kept low in the marshy river edges. Cranes flew laboriously, then swiftly. She chased the birds but could not catch any of them. After many hours, she flew home to the aerie and food. Following Lady's scent, the gray fox located her exact position with his nose and leaped. She was gone. He looked up. The young falcon was climbing the cliff, beating her wings, taking hold of rock cracks with the hook of her beak and her talons. She scrambled and flopped. The fox climbed after her. Frightful suddenly appeared above him. She dropped headfirst, pumping her wings close to her body, and hit the fox with her talons. She was going twenty miles an hour. He yelped and leaped. Too heavy for Frightful to hold; she let go. The fox fell, lit on his feet, and ran into the woods. Frightful returned to her stub.

在水里，芦苇丛中，树林间还有天空上。 她盯着这些不同种类的鸟儿看。 每一种鸟的飞行姿态都不一样。 鸭子在水面上助跑，才能飞上天。 鸽子成群结队地在空中倾斜转弯。 燕子忽低忽高，飞速穿行。 秧鸡躲在河边沼泽的低处。 鹤一开始飞得吃力，之后就变得轻快迅捷。 她追着鸟儿跑，可一只都抓不到。 好几个小时过去后，她飞回鸟巢吃东西。 灰狐狸顺着蕾蒂的气味，靠鼻子精准定位，猛地扑了过来。 她已经飞走了。 他抬起头看去。 这只年轻猎隼正往悬崖上爬，扑扇着翅膀，用钩状的喙和爪子扣住岩石裂缝。 她连爬带滑，跌跌撞撞。 狐狸跟在她身后往上爬。 福莱特突然出现在狐狸头顶。 她头朝下俯冲，翅膀贴紧身体振翅，用爪子狠狠击中了狐狸。 当时她的速度达到了每小时二十英里。 狐狸痛得叫出声，猛地跳开。 福莱特抓不住这么重的狐狸，只好松了爪。 狐狸摔下去，四脚着地后，立刻逃进了树林。 福莱特回到了她的树桩上。