536 THE BIRDS OF MANITOBA THOMPSON. 



fiercely and determinedly continued to dash around the buildings in 

 pursuit of the fowls, when a fifth shot grazed his wing and brought him 

 down. He is the very personification of fierceness and defiance, and 

 his actions are full of snap. As soon as approached he hissed, and 

 struck with his great talons so quickly that the eye could not follow 

 the movement. I put him in a building along with a Swainson's Buz- 

 zard and a crane, and, oh! how clumsy and vulgar they both looked 

 beside him. He is the royalest robber that ever I saw. His every mo- 

 tion is so full of untamable ferocity as to elude the eye; his eye is 

 brighter and fiercer than an eagle's, but I am in hoijes that with care 1 

 may succeed in taming him. August 2: Notwithstanding the gentlest 

 treatment, the Peregrine continued to scorn all approaches, and the 

 slightest attempt to touch him called forth in response only the dim 

 flash of his massive horn-tipped feet, a fair warning of what may be 

 expected should the liberty of handling be attempted. On enteribg 

 in the morning, I found him sitting on the body of the crane; it is not 

 certain that he was the murderer, but ic is against him, that having left 

 him undisturbed for an hour immediately afterward he made use of the 

 time to devour the greater part of the crane's breast on one side, and 

 that he and the buzzard subsequently picked the bones clean. August 

 12: The Peregrine died to -da^^ after a captivity of three weeks, no 

 cause being assigned for his death. He was a young male of the year, 

 I think. Besides the hissing menace already mentioned, he indulged 

 in two other vocal efforts ; one an exceedingly loud, piercing scream of 

 anger, the other a reiterated shrieking, almost exactly like that of the 

 kestrel, but stronger and in a deeper key. 



Pay-pay nay seu Ka cake. » » * They appear in our marshes in the beginning 

 of June, and soon after make their nests in trees. It is composed of sticks and lined 

 with feathers. They lay three or four white eggs. The young ones take flight in 

 August, and the whole species leave us in September or the first week in October. 

 They sometimes kill geese, but their usnal food is ducks, plovers, partridges, and 

 small birds. (Hutchins MSS., Observations on Hudson Bay, 1782.) 



On September 11; ld83, at Carberry, about 4 p. m., a fine Peregrine came and sat on 

 a fence close to the house. Just as I was about to fire at him with the rifle he rose 

 and flew close over my head and around me. Then, after whisking over the chickens 

 and putting them into a rare fright, he hovered for nearly a minute at about 40 feet 

 above the ground as well as ever I saw a kestrel do, which surprised me. So sta- 

 tionary was he that I thought I might as well fire, as I had as good a chance of hit- 

 ting him as on a fence, I did so, but of course missed him. (Christy, in MSS.) 



119. Falco columbarius. Pigeon Hawk. 



Chiefly in the migration ; common. Dufferin : Arrived before April 

 15 (Dawson). Winnipeg : Summer resident ; tolerably common (Hine). 

 Ossowa: 1885, April 18; common April 23 (Wagner). Norway House 

 (Bell). Common fall migrant at Carberry; noted also north of Petrel 

 (Thompson). One shot at Livingston, September 1-3, 1881 ; common in 

 Wiunepegosis regions, breeding in the Assiniboine Valley, at Brandon, 



