44 BULLETIN 170, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



"There is some evidence that it is the male bird that is strongly 

 attached to the cliff — that he returns there first and endeavors to 

 attract a female, but if unsuccessful, remains there throughout the 

 summer, while unmated females apparently roam about from place 

 to place. Whether the duck hawk mates for life, and the female of 

 the previous season returns directly to the cliff, if still alive (as has 

 been generally assumed), I am not yet prepared to say, but I do recall 

 very vividly a little drama that throws considerable light on the initial 

 stages of courtship. This took place at Mount Sugarloaf on March 

 16 and involved a male peregrine that at that date, some three weeks 

 after his return to the mountain, appeared to be still unmated. I had 

 been watching him for more than an hour as he sat quietly on a dead 

 pine above the cliff and during this whole period had heard no call or 

 seen no such animation as is associated with the courting period. 

 Suddenly, at about 9 o'clock, he launched out from his perch and began 

 to sail back and forth along the face of the cliff, repeatedly giving the 

 wichew or rusty-hinge note. A moment later I spotted a large female 

 peregrine coming up the valley from the south, some 200 feet above 

 the mountain. Arriving abreast of the cliff, she began to describe 

 wide circles over the crest, flying very leisurely and seeming to watch 

 the proceedings below her ; the tercel redoubled his cries and flew from 

 one shelf to another, alighting for a moment on each one and then 

 swinging along to the next, with every appearance of the greatest 

 excitement. The falcon, having presently completed three or four 

 circles, now straightened her course toward the north, and picking up 

 speed with every stroke of her wings soon disappeared in the haze 

 along North Sugarloaf; the male continued his vain activity, wailing 

 and wichew-ing for nearly a minute after she had passed from sight. 

 He then made a short silent sally out over the valley and finally 

 returned to sit hunched up and quiet on his dead tree for many minutes, 

 before leaving on a hunting expedition behind the mountain. This 

 episode introduces several of the elements of the courtship — the 

 flight display, the shelf display, the coaxing wicheiv note — and it 

 remains only to elaborate on their use and to mention the food-bringing 

 routine. 



"The male assumes an aggressive role throughout the first part of 

 the period, seeming to arouse and lead on the female from step to 

 step of the reproductive cycle. With both birds at a cliff, early in 

 March, the first business of each morning is feeding. Shortly after 

 daylight the falcons will be discovered perched on their favorite dead 

 trees on the upper part of the cliff, watching closely for the passing 

 of some smaller bird suitable for prey. If none appears near at hand 

 the male will sally out at intervals and go far across the valley, 

 returning perhaps at the end of 20 or 30 minutes with a blue jay 

 hanging limp in his talons. He wails while still at a distance, and the 



