80 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



only in a good light, but the black tail, with whitish bands, is more 

 conspicuous. 



Fall.— It is during the fall migration that most of the pigeon hawks 

 are seen. They come straggling along from September to November, 

 but the height of the migration comes late in September and early in 

 October, together with the heavy flight of small land birds. At that 

 season they are oftenest seen in open country, along the borders of 

 streams or large bodies of water, or along the seacoast. A. L. and 

 H. L. Ferguson (1922), referring to Fishers Island, N. Y., say: "The 

 Pigeon Hawk is very common at the Island during migration. These 

 small falcons prefer a southwest wind to fly on, though numbers 

 come along on a northwest wind. They feed early in the day, and 

 rarely is one collected that is not found to be packed full of birds. 

 They are very savage, and are ready to fight at any time, either with 

 another Pigeon Hawk or a decoy owl. At the decoy we have seen 

 one return seven times, dashing in and squealing, but never striking. 

 They decoy better than the Sharpshins, and when once near the owl 

 are not afraid of a person. The young birds migrate first, and the 

 adults later, like the Sharp-shinned Hawk." 



Lucien M. Turner's latest date for Fort Chimo, Ungava, where the 

 species is rare, is September 25. Arthur T. Wayne (1910) gives the 

 dates for the migration through South Carolina as ranging from Sep- 

 tember 13 to November 7. He says: "It is most frequently seen in 

 October, when large flights sometimes occur, as on October 10, 1903, 

 when I witnessed an enormous migration lasting through the whole 

 day. Nearly all of these hawks were flying beyond gun shot and but 

 one specimen was taken. Adult birds are very rarely seen or taken, 

 and a male secured April 13, 1900, and a female taken November 7, 

 1898, are the only adult birds I have ever seen. Although this 

 species is said to 'winter in Massachusetts and to the southward' it 

 certainly does not occur at that season on the coast of South Carolina." 



Ivan R. Tomkins writes to me that he has seen it near Savannah, 

 Ga., "all through November, and once on January 24." Probably it 

 does not spend the winter regularly much north of Florida, where it is 

 fairly common at that season, arriving during the latter part of Sep- 

 tember and remaining until April. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — The species is circumpolar, Old World forms breeding 

 from Iceland and the British Isles, across northern Europe and Asia, 

 to Kamchatka and wintering south to northern Africa, India, Turk- 

 estan, China, and Japan. The North American races breed from 

 Alaska across Canada to Newfoundland and winter south to the West 

 Indies and northern South America. 



Breeding range. — In North America the pigeon hawk breeds north 

 to Alaska (Kobuk River, Gens de Large Mountains, and possibly 



