IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 95 



and if there were young in the nest both birds seemed 

 furious and were very bold. On one occasion the bird was 

 seen to take a lone Teal duck, which was following some 

 distance behind a flock of its kind. The Falcon started in 

 pursuit, and the little Blue winged Teal, realizing its dan- 

 ger, redoubled its speed and began to squawk its alarm in 

 unmistakable notes, the Falcon flying parallel to and about 

 a rod distant from its course of flight, with rapid beats of 

 its wings, speedily gained a point opposite the duck and 

 then, with astonishing swiftness, struck the Teal almost at 

 right angles. The blow was delivered w^ith such precision 

 and such stunning force that the feather flew in all direc- 

 tions. 



Mr. Burge remarked that "If the Falcon had struck the 

 duck twice, he would certainly have had him picked." The 

 Teal fell into the water some distance from shore, and was 

 carried thence to their favorite snag, where the two pro- 

 ceeded to tear it to pieces. 



The first set of eggs secured by Mr. Burge at the lower 

 Palisades, on the 25th of April, 1892, contained four eggs 

 varying from 2-2.96 inches to 1-98.96 inches in length, and 

 from 1-58.96 inches to 1-64.96 inches in breadth. In color, 

 two were uniformly spotted over the entire surface, with 

 reddish brown on a creamy bufl' background; the third 

 showed almost no background whatever, and the fourth is 

 washed around the small end with dark lilac and coffee 

 color. 



The nest was inaccessible without a rope. Incubation 

 was well advanced. Another set had been taken from a 

 a nest near by four days previous, on April 20th. They 

 were also badly incubated and were destroyed, as the man 

 who secured them did not know their value nor how to 

 preserve them. The same man secured a second set from 

 the nest where Mr. Burge took his first set of four, about 

 three weeks after the laying of the first set. They were 

 also destroyed. 



In 1893 Mr. Russel Moore took a set of eggs from the 

 highest cliff in the upper Palisades. This set was taken 

 April 5th. The set varied in length from two inches to 



