184 NOTES ON THE 



less direct until right upon its victim. If it misses the first 

 dash, the chase is by no means relinquished, but will be con- 

 tinued anywhere the pursued goes. I have known an instance 

 in which it followed a domestic fowl through an open window 

 of a farmhouse and under a bed. The severity of our winters 

 keeps the poultry housed too closely for them to do much dam- 

 age until the very last part of their stay in March. 



Mr. Lewis observed them in the pineries so late in May as 

 to make it almost certain that they breed in the vicinity of 

 Mille Lacs, and further north in the State. Dr. Hvoslef 

 reported one in Fillmore county on tJie 19th of March, which 

 had doubtless begun its migration. 



Of late years I rarely meet this hawk among the collections 

 of the taxidermists, or fresh specimens on the shelves of the 

 societies; a fact of common note with bird collectors. The 

 species evidently retires northward very early in the spring, 

 and before the temperature of the weather has allowed the 

 enthusiastic observer to reach fever point in his ambitions. 

 When I have found my way into the timbered sections early 

 after the winter has broken, I have found them sailing swiftly 

 along the brushy edges of the woods, or the borders of the 

 woodland streams, scarcely swerving in their course to seize 

 their prey, which was speedily borne into the trackless forest 

 to be consumed in undisturbed repose. They are a terror to 

 the early flocks of Wild Pigeons when they come, making sure 

 supplies of them under any circumstances conceivable. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Head above, neck behind and stripe from behind the eye 

 black, generally more or less tinged with ashy; other under 

 parts dark ashy-bluish, or slate color, with the shafts of the 

 feathers black and frequently with the feathers narrowly 

 edged with black, presenting a squamate or scale-like appear- 

 ance; a conspicuous stripe over the eye and an obscure and 

 partially concealed occipital and nuchal band, white; entire 

 under parts mottled with white and light ashy-brown, every 

 feather with a longitudinal line of dark brown on the shaft, 

 and with numerous irregular and imperfect transverse lines or 

 narrow stripes of light ashy -brown, more distinct and regular 

 on the abdomen and tibiae; quills brown with bands of a 

 deeper shade of the same color and of ashy -white on their 

 inner webs; tail same color as other under parts; under 

 surface very pale, nearly white, having about four ob.scure 

 bands of a deeper shade of ashy -brown, narrowly tipped with 

 "white; under tail coverts white. 



Length (of female), 22 to 24; wing, 14; tail 10.50 to 11. 



Habitat, North America. 



