"Mercedes Lackey - Flights of Fantasy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

Flights of Fantasy

Copyright ┬й 1999 by Mercedes Lackey and Tekno Books
All Rights Reserved Cover art by Robert Giusti
DAW Book Collectors No. 1141 DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Putnam Inc.

Introduction ┬й 1999 by Mercedes Lackey
The Tale of Hrafn-Bui ┬й 1999 by Diana L. Paxson
A Question of Faith ┬й 1999 by Josepha Sherman
Taking Freedom ┬й 1999 by S.M. Stirling
A Gathering of Bones ┬й 1999 by Ron Collins
Night Flight ┬й 1999 by Lawrence Watt Evans
A Buzzard Named Rabinowitz ┬й 1999 by Mike Resnick
Tweaked in the Head ┬й 1999 by Samuel C. Conway
One Wing Down ┬й 1999 by Susan Shwartz Owl Light ┬й 1999 by Nancy Asire
Eagle's Eye ┬й 1999 by Jody Lynn Nye
Wide Wings ┬й 1999 by Mercedes Lackey

INTRODUCTION
RAPTORS. Birds of prey. Everyone gets a differ-ent mental picture when they
think of birds of preyтАФbirds who make their livings as predators, the top of
the food chain. Some immedi-ately picture the American bald eagle, the symbol
of the United States, without realizing that the bald eagle is more often a
fisher than a hunter, which is why they are most often found near large bodies
of water. Some think of babies being carried off (not in recorded history) or
savage golden eagles preying on lambs (unlikelyтАФthey are more likely to be
taking advantage of a lamb found already dead; birds of prey rarely attack
anything too big to carry off). Some imagine noble thoughts going on behind
those enormous, keen eyes; others, even in this day and age, see a "varmint,"
a creature that attacks a farmer's animals and competes for hunting resources,
and should be shot on sight.
Most are at least partly or completely wrong in what they imagine.
As a licensed raptor rehabber, I know birds of prey personally; sometimes very
personally, as a great horned owl puts her talon through my Kevlar-lined
welding glove and into my hand. . . .
There are no noble thoughts going on in those brains. Real raptors have
relatively small brains, most of which is composed of visual cortex with the
rest mostly hard-wired with hunting skills. That doesn't leave a lot of room
for social behavior. I once read a passage in a romance novel describing a
lady's falcon perched in a tree above her, watching protectively over her, and
nearly became hysterical with laughter. No falcon in my acquaintance is going
to perch in a tree, protectively or otherwise, if left to her own devices.
Turn your back on her, and she will be out of there without a backward
glanceтАФwhich is why falconers in this day and age must fit their birds with
jesses and bracelets (the leg-restraints) that can be removed by the bird.
Nearly every falconer has sad tales of the ones that escaped, and no falconer
wishes to think of his bird hanging upside down, entangled in her jesses in a
tree, to die a slow and horrible death. As for being "varmints," most birds of
prey neither poach on farmers' livestock nor compete with hunters. The single
two most common raptors in the USтАФAmerican kestrels and redtail hawks, which