The Killers

by Daniel P. Mannix

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.

Genres: Fiction, Animal Fiction, Animals

198 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Daniel Pratt Mannix IV was best known as an American author and journalist. His life was remarkably different from other writers of his generation. His career included times as a side show performer, magician, trainer of eagles and film maker.

The Grest Zadma was a stage name Mannix used as a magician. He also entertained as a sword swallower and fire eater in a traveling carnival sideshow. Magazine articles about these experiences, co-written with his wife, became very popular in 1944 and 1945.

As an author Mannix covered a wide variety of subject matter. His more than 25 books ranged from fictional animal stories for children, the natural history of animals, and adventurous accounts about hunting big game to sensational adult non-fiction topics such as a biography of the occultist Aleister Crowley, sympathetic accounts of carnival performers and sideshow freaks, and works describing, among other things, the Hellfire Club, the Atlantic slave trade, the history of torture, and the Roman games. His output of essays and articles was extensive.

Reviews

[Bruce Nordstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing book that described the lives of both a fighting cock, and a hunting hawk. It went into great detail to describe the intracies of the barnyard chickens and the predatory Cooper's hawk. The book does not take sides to show either as right or wrong, but goes to show daily struggle of each to stay alive.

The rooster is a game cock specifically bred for the sport of fighting, and that is one of the more interesting portions. He escapes the ring and takes up life in a farmyard, where he is the guardian of the flock.

The hawk is raised in the wild, and each day is a struggle for her to survive.

These are the killers. This book is well worth a second or even a third read.

[Casimir Laski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serving as an avian mirror to Mannix’s magnum opus, The Killers centers on the long-running rivalry between a retired fighting rooster and a wild Cooper’s hawk. Eschewing The Fox and the Hound’s focus on tracking and pursuit to instead center on the violent struggle for supremacy, this novel features the two leads coming together in a series of battles that give the story the qualities of an action thriller while shying from the environmentalist messaging that made its predecessor such a powerful novel. [7/10]

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to a group of librarians on Facebook, I was able to find this book that I first read in the early 1970s. I've looked for it on and off since then, fearing that my memory of the book was going to be better than the book itself. But that turned out not to be true. Mannix does a remarkable job of blending natural history, animal husbandry, and a simple farming life into a story of two fighting birds, quite different from one another, from birth through the first few years of their lives. You are entertained while learning. I know a great deal about the game chicken world, though I've never been part of it, and he never strikes a false note.

[Eloise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this on a whim one day and it has since become my favorite book. It blends realism and creative liberty in a way that makes me absolutely love it.

[Marianne Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

The original author's note here is dated 1968

This is classified as animal fiction and I am not sure how I ended up with this book. In any case, it held me enthralled for several happy days. If I could find more books that were this well written, I would read the genre more often. There is nothing here that is remotely cute, and no attempt to make the characters think and act like people. One of the two main characters is a fighting game cock, but he escapes to a Mennonite farm early in the book, so coverage of that brutal sport is brief. The wild hawk is a female Cooper's hawk whose territory includes the farm where the game cock has found a home. There are many interesting observations about how the different species interact and are dependent on one another. Recommended to anyone who enjoys reading about the natural world with 5 stars 🌟.

[Mythical Mishmash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely one of my favourite reads of this year. It was exciting, thrilling, tragic and amusing all at once.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one caught my eye because it was written by the author of the Fox and the Hound (which I admit I have never read, but it was a favorite movie of mine when I was little). While it is technically a work of fiction, this is really more a natural history of the domestic rooster and the Cooper's hawk. It follows the life of a fighting cock and a female hawk over the course of a few years, where their lives intersect on a few occasions. Anthropomorphizing is kept to a bare minimum. Mannix really is just giving names to two completely natural birds with realistic animal personalities. This can make it somewhat dry for long stretches, I'm almost tempted to classify it as non-fiction. It was kind of fun recognizing the specific studies he refers to when he describes a moment (such as the rooster not recognizing the hawk inside the coop because it was not the short-necked, long-tailed, forward-moving silhouette birds naturally react to) -- he has done his research on top of clearly having a personal understanding of the animals involved. I learned a lot of interesting tidbits about the training of fighting cocks which I'd never encountered before. I also have to give him credit for detailing every single move in every single fight throughout the book -- I think he has outdone any swashbuckling adventure author I've read.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

All hail the Mannixster. He rocketh.