The Killers

Even if readers don't speak a word of cluck, bird enthusiasts and animal lovers are bound to be captivated by Whitehackle, a fighting rooster, and Ishmael, a female Cooper's hawk turned chicken thief, as they embark on a life-long duel for dominance. Daniel P Mannix dramatizes the story by filling it with realistic detail and amazing revelations of the animal psyche His setting, a traditional farm deep in the Pennsylvania Dutch country, is an authentic background for the struggle between two of nature's born enemies.

Whitehackle, the tactician, is a superb, brilliantly colored fighting cock (trained with more attention to diet and exercise than an Olympic athlete) who is unexpectedly turned loose after his first cockfight and who finds his own way to the country where he becomes the pride of the farm and lord of the barnyard. His enemy is a female Cooper's hawk, Ishmael, the strategist, flying free among the woods and fields of the rich countryside and determined to dine on birds and other barnyard beasts under Whitehackles protection.

In one dramatic chapter after another, Daniel Mannix describes the growth, maturity and way of life of these two powerful birds as each meets and surmounts life's challenges. At the peak of their development, skills honed and sharpened, they meet in a final confrontation.

The turn of the seasons, and nature's own harsh laws of survival, have never been more vividly portrayed. Beside its unusual picture of the lives and habits of birds, (including fascinating observations of domestic chickens, peacocks, and ducks), the story captures the flavor of a rural world fast disappearing in America.