EASTERN PIGEON HAWK 73 



8 feet from the ground. The nest was made of dry grasses, fibrous 

 bark, and a few feathers." 



Roderick MacFarlane (1891) writes: 



This falcon ranges along the Anderson River almost to the Arctic coast of 

 Liverpool Bay. Several of their nests had apparently been built by them on pine 

 trees, and others on the ledges of shaly cliffs. The former were composed exter- 

 nally of a few dry willow twigs and internally of withered hay or grasses, etc., and 

 the latter had only a very few decayed leaves under the eggs. * * * I would 

 also mention the following interesting circumstance: On the 25th of May, 1864, 

 a trusty Indian in my employ found a nest placed in the midst of a thick pine 

 branch of a tree at a height of about six feet from the ground. It was rather loosely 

 constructed of a few dry sticks and a small quantity of coarse hay. It then con- 

 tained two eggs. Both parents were seen, fired at, and missed. On the 31st he 

 revisited the nest, which still held but two eggs, and again missed the birds. 

 Several days later he made another visit thereto, and to his surprise the eggs and 

 parents had disappeared. His first impression was that some other person had 

 taken them. After looking carefully around, he perceived both birds at a short 

 distance, and this led him to institute a search which soon resulted in finding that 

 the eggs must have been removed by the parent birds to the face of a muddy bank 

 at least forty yards distant from the original nest. A few decayed leaves had been 

 placed under them, but nothing else in the way of lining. A third egg had been 

 added in the interim. There can hardly be any doubt of the truth of the fore- 

 going facts. 



H. Kirke Swann (193G) states that the pigeon hawk sometimes nests 

 "under the roofs of deserted buildings.'' 



Eggs. — The number of eggs laid by the pigeon hawk is usually four 

 or five, oftener five than four, very rarely six, and occasionally only 

 three. They vary in shape from short-ovate to oval or nearly ellip- 

 tical-ovate. The shell is smooth but without gloss. They look almost 

 exactly like small duck hawks' eggs, showing the same rich and 

 brilliant colors, but they average somewhat darker. Bendire (1892) 

 describes them very well, as follows: "The ground color when visible 

 is pale creamy white as a rule, and is hidden by a reddish brown 

 suffusion of various degrees of intensity, and this, again, is finely 

 marked or boldly blotched, with different shades of burnt umber, 

 claret brown and vinaceous rufous. These markings are generally 

 equally and profusely distributed over the entire egg, and are super- 

 ficial ; occasionally they are most distinct about one of the ends, being 

 disposed in the shape of a wreath." 



I have seen some that were sparingly spotted with dull browns and 

 buff; and one set that was nearly immaculate white. The measure- 

 ments of 55 eggs average 40.2 by 31.3 millimeters; the eggs showing 

 the four extremes measure 44.5 by 33, 40.4 by 33.1, 37.5 by 33, and 

 38 by 30 millimeters. 



Plumages. — When first hatched the young pigeon hawk is rather 

 thinly covered with short, creamy-white down, mixed with pure white ; 

 this is replaced later by longer down, brownish gray or grayish white 



13751—38 6 



