BLACK PIGEON HAWK 85 



There is a set of four eggs in the A. M. Ingersoll collection, taken 

 by L. D. Rice near Sitka, Alaska, on May 27, 1887, from a "nest of 

 sticks, lined with leaves and feathers, built on top of a rock about 

 eight feet high." These eggs are now stored in the museum of the 

 San Diego Society of Natural History. 



Plumages. — The molts and plumages evidently follow the same 

 sequence in the black pigeon hawk as in others of the species, but 

 suckleyi is much darker than columbarius in all plumages. In the 

 juvenal plumages of both sexes and in the adult female, the upper 

 parts are "fuscous-black" to "clove brown" in fall birds, somewhat 

 paler in spring; the tail bands are narrow and broken, or restricted 

 to mere spots; the under parts are heavily marked with broad streaks 

 of "clove brown" or "bone brown", the dark colors predominating. 



In the adult male the upper parts are "dark plumbeous", lightest 

 on the rump and tail coverts, deepening to "blackish plumbeous" 

 on the upper back and to nearly black on the nape; the tail is black, 

 with white tip spots and three or four interrupted bars or spots of 

 "dark plumbeous"; the chin and throat are white, with narrow black 

 streaks; the remaining under parts are strongly washed with "cinna- 

 mon-buff" and broadly streaked with black; the black predominates 

 on the belly and flanks. Mrs. Fannie H. Eckstorm (1902) has given 

 us a fine description, in more detail, of a very dark specimen, an 

 extreme melano. 



Behavior. — The food, manner of hunting, and other habits of the 

 black pigeon hawk are similar to those of its eastern relative. It is 

 the same bold dashing little falcon. Mr. Rathbun writes to me: 

 "A friend of ours was hunting jacksnipe on marshy pastureland quite 

 some distance north of here. The section was open, although a long 

 distance away was a standing tree or two. The snipe came darting 

 past my friend just within long gunshot. He swung on one, and 

 when the gun cracked the bird started falling in a diving, fluttering 

 flight, appearing to have a broken wing. But only part of its descent 

 had taken place when 'from nowhere' flashed a small, dark hawk, its 

 flight so swift that it appeared only as a 'blurr in the air'. The hawk 

 struck the snipe squarely in mid-air, then quickly carried it away. 

 The whole occurrence took place so quickly that, although a shot 

 was fired in turn at the departing hawk, it had no effect, as it was 

 practically out of range when the shot was fired, for my informant 

 was taken completely by surprise at what had occurred." 



Since the above was written, I have been interested in reading the 

 following suggestion by Harry S. Swarth (1935) as to the validity of 

 this dark form as a geographical race: 



"Suckleyi was described, and has been regarded, as an extremely satisfying 

 example of the darkening effect of the humid coastal environment of the north- 

 west, as another 'saturated' local race. However, breeding birds are unknown 



