BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



191 



less and less frequent as the years go by. As nearly as I can learn, it has been 

 observed here only twice within the past seventeen years ; on February 13, 1890, 

 at Mystic Pond, by Mr. Walter Faxon, and on January 18, 1898, near Fresh 

 Pond, by Mr. Alton H. Hathaway. 



Elsewhere in eastern Massachusetts, Bald Eagles do not seem to be dimin- 

 ishing materially in numbers. I still see one or two birds nearly every sea- 

 son at Concord, and at Wareham on June 12, 1900, Mr. Outram Bangs and 

 I counted no less than six perched on the trees around the shores of a small 

 pond into which alewives were running at the time. Many of these fish die 

 after depositing their spawn, and are picked up by the Eagles who are ever on 

 the alert to secure such tempting and easy prey. The birds which occur in 

 summer about this and other fresh-water ponds on Cape Cod are usually in 

 immature plumage and obviously not engaged in breeding. Nor is there evi- 

 dence to indicate that the Bald Eagle has nested within recent times in any 

 part of eastern Massachusetts. 



89. Falco peregrinus anatum (Bonap.). 

 Duck Hawk. 



Of rare occurrence in autumn and winter. 



Most of the Duck Hawks which migrate through eastern Massachusetts 

 follow the seacoast, where they occur not infrequently in spring and autumn. 

 I can give but two records of their appearance in the Cambridge Region. The 

 first of these relates to a bird which Mr. Walter Faxon found at Fresh Pond on Jan- 

 uary 7, 1893, and which was last noted there on February 1 following. During 

 the interim it was seen almost daily by one or another of our local observers, 

 usually in or near the hemlock grove. I had an especially favorable view of it on 

 the morning of January 22 when I found it perched on the dead branch of a tall 

 pine where the Fresh Pond Hotel once stood. As it was in strong sunlight and 

 within one hundred yards of me, I was able to make out distinctly, with the aid 

 of my glass, that it was a male in fully mature plumage. The pond was frozen 

 over during its entire stay, but about the large, geyser-like fountain, at the outlet 

 of the supply pipe from Stony Brook Reservoir, there was a space of open water 

 to which several Golden-eyes resorted daily. It is possible that the Falcon was 

 preying on these Ducks, although on one occasion I saw it fly directly over the 

 pool where they were swimming without apparently either noticing or alarming 

 them. Mr. Faxon and I searched the ground carefully beneath all its favorite 



