EASTERN PIGEON HAWK 71 



year over practically all the North American Continent, except in 

 the treeless Arctic region. 



Spring. — To most of us the pigeon hawk is known only as a spring 

 and fall visitor, as its breeding range is mainly north of the United 

 States and as it spends its winters in the Southern States and beyond 

 our borders. In New England the spring migration occurs mainly 

 during the last half of April and the first half of May, coinciding with 

 the main flight of small birds on which it feeds. 



Nesting. — My experience with the nesting habits of the pigeon hawk 

 has been limited to two nests found on the south coast of the Labrador 

 Peninsula and one found in Newfoundland. In each case our attention 

 was attracted to the nesting site by the noisy behavior of the birds, 

 flying about nervously and screaming excitedly even while we were 

 some distance away. On June 3, 1909, while we were walking along 

 the rocky shore of Eskimo Island, Canadian Labrador, we heard 

 the cries of a small hawk; on climbing up to the edge of the spruce 

 woods, we saw a pigeon hawk flying about, or perching on the top of a 

 tall spruce and flying down occasionally into the woods. I began a 

 careful search through the dense thickets of spruces and firs, where I 

 finally found, in a thicket of taller spruces, what looked like an old 

 crow's nest, about 14 feet up in a red spruce. The hawks were not 

 in evidence, but I climbed up to the nest and was surprised to find 

 three beautiful eggs. It had long been my hope to collect a set of 

 pigeon hawk's eggs, and four days later I returned and gratified the 

 wish by taking a handsome set of five eggs and photographing them in 

 the nest. The nest was apparently a very old crow's nest that had 

 since been used by red squirrels, as the deep cavity had been filled 

 with rubbish, including numerous seed scales from the cones of the 

 white spruce. It rested on horizontal branches close to the trunk of 

 the tree and was made of rather large, dead sticks, interwoven with 

 soft mosses ; the center had been hollowed by scraping out the rubbish, 

 which had become quite rotted; very little lining had been added, 

 merely a few small pieces of fine twigs and lichens ; a few bits of down 

 were visible in and around the nest and on the surrounding branches. 

 The nest measured 16 by 14 inches in outside and 8 by 8 inches in 

 inside diameter; the outside height was 9 inches and the inner cavity 

 was 2% inches deep (pi. 16). 



While fishing for trout in the Mingan River, on June 17, 1909, we 

 were attracted to another nest by the cries of a pair of pigeon hawks. 

 This was somewhat differently located in a large, rather open space in 

 heavy spruce timber, where there were a few tall, scattered spruces. 

 My companion, Dr. Charles W. Townsend, saw the male falcon fly 

 into a tall black spruce and out again, in winch a large nest was 

 visible; he rapped the tree and the female flew from the nest. The 

 tree was about 45 feet high aDd measured 58 inches in circumference 



