208 FALCONS, HAWKS, EAGLES, ETC. 



are eagerly taken, and their habit of robbing the Fish Hawk of his 

 well-earned booty is too well known to be commented upon. In some 

 localities, particularly in the south during the winter, they live largely 

 upon water-fowl which they capture themselves. 



Tha voice of the Bald Eagle has a weird, human quality. Dr. 

 Fisher says : '• At a distance the note of the Bald Eagle is not alto- 

 gether unpleasant, resembling somewhat that of Sea Gulls, but near 

 by it is grating and suggests a maniacal laugh." Dr. William L. Ralph 

 writes in Captain Bendire's Life Histories of North American Birds, 

 p. 277 : " The cry of the male is a loud and clear cac-cac-cac, quite dif- 

 ferent from that of the female — so much so that I could always recog- 

 nize the sex of the bird by it ; the call of the latter is more harsh and 

 often broken." 



The conspicuous white head and tail of adults of this species render 

 it easy of identification even at a considerable distance. Young birds 

 too closely resemble Golden Eagles to be distinguished with certainty, 

 but the rarity of that species in the east makes it probable that any 

 Eagle observed is a Bald Eagle. 



353* Falco islandus ^ri/w/i. White Gyrfalcon. Ad. — Head white, 

 finely streaked with black ; scapulars, hiterscapulars, and wing-coverts brown- 

 ish gray, widely margined with white ; tail white, the central feathers with 

 sometimes broken bars; under parta white, lightly streaked with grayish 

 brown; under tail-coverts white. //??.— Similar, but upper parts with nar- 

 rower white margins ; tail barred with brownish gray, under parts heavily 

 streaked with the same color. L., 22-00 ; W., 16-00 ; T., 10-00 ; B. from N., -95. 



Range. Arctic regions ; casually south in winter to Maine. 



Nest., on rocky cliffs. E'jgs^ three to four, varying from creamy white, 

 spotted or blotched with cinnamon-brown, to uniform pale reddish brown, 

 spotted or blotched with shades of the same color, 2-30 ^ i-S5. 



"The food consists of water-fowl and other birds— largely of vari- 

 ous arctic species of Grouse which are captured on the wing. All 

 these northern Falcons were formerly esteemed for hawking, as they 

 still are by the Mongol races ; their style of flight is magnificent— much 

 swifter than that of the Peregrine— and both are deadly 'footers' 

 (i. e., tenacious of grip), but they lack spirit and dash " (Saunders). 



354. Falco rusticolus Linn. Gray Gyrfalcon. Ad. — Upper parts 

 grayish fuscous, barred and nuu-gined with butty white; tail with numerous 

 bars of the same colors; under parts white, streaked and spotted with black- 

 ish ; legs and under tail-coverts barred with brownish gray. L., 20-00 ; W., 

 15-50 ; T., 9-50 ; B. from N., -90. 



Range. — Arctic regions; in America, south in winter to the northern 

 United States. '« 



JSfest., on cliffs or in treesf Eggs^ three to four, not distinguishable from 

 those of the precedingj 2-37 x 1-72. 



