200 NOTES ON THE 



it. I was for several years a member of a gun club in the city 

 where I reside, and I well remember an incident in illustration 

 of the characteristics of this hawk which took place while we 

 were shooting at pigeons thrown from a trap. The firing was 

 rapid at the time, when a pigeon got away and circled around 

 over a cornfield directly behind the shooting stand. A little 

 out of good range, it nevertheless received the attention of a 

 dozen guns, during which time a Duck Hawk appeared in pur 

 suit of the escaping pigeon, and undismayed by the roar of the 

 guns, drove the bird directly over our heads, where of course 

 both birds were sacrificed. It proved to be a female in full 

 plumage. The event occurred on the 13th of August, 1875. 



Sportsmen early learn that this hawk is exceptionally ob- 

 noxious to their amusement, be the game whatever it may, pro- 

 vided it is not larger than the bird in question. It is a remorse- 

 less marauder and murderer, killing for amusement after satis- 

 fying its hunger completely. It will attack small birds, and 

 as fast as it crushes the life of one out with its talons will drop 

 it and attack another. No man should be accounted a genuine 

 sportsman with the gun who does not instantly slaughter the 

 Duck Hawk at sight. These brigands of the wing understand 

 what their own standing is with this class of the genus homo, 

 and will give him a wide birth except when running down their 

 victims, when they are oblivious to all else. 



They have usually left the State by the 25th of October, ex- 

 cept an occasional individual found in the southern counties, 

 where they remain far into November. 



FALCO COUUBARIUS L. (357.) 



PIGEON HAWK. 



Being exceptionally familiar with this hawk in other sec- 

 tions, I am not a little disappointed to find them so extremely 

 rare here, although I have long known them to be accounted 

 only subcommon in the Mississippi valley. In 1862 I found a 

 specimen of this species in the mounted collection of a gentle- 

 man who was an expert in the identification of game birds, and 

 was making a study of their predatory enemies on wings. He 

 obtained it in the fall of the previous year while it was in the 

 act of seizing another bird, and was impressed with its unfamiliar 

 appearance enough to have it mounted without having known 

 its specific identity until I named it for him. In 1867 I found a 

 representative of each sex in Mr. Howling's collection, since 



I 



