Kites, Hawks, Eagles, etc. 



moss, and other coarse materials make a flat structure four or 

 five feet in breadth and sometimes of even greater height after a 

 succession of annual repairs. While the two or three large, 

 rough, dull white eggs are being incubated by both mates, and 

 especially after the young appear, these eagles, unlike the golden 

 species, become truly magnificent in the fierce defence of their 

 treasures ; yet a rooster is easily a match for the cowardly eagle 

 at other times. Immense quantities of food must be carried to the 

 helpless young for the three or four months while they remain in 

 the nest, and for weeks after they learn to fly. Because imma- 

 ture birds reverse nature's order and are larger than adults, and 

 their plumage undergoes three changes before they appear at the 

 close of the third year in white heads and tails, some early 

 writers described the black eagle, Washington's eagle, and the 

 bald-headed eagle as three distinct birds, even Audubon and 

 Nuttall treating this one species as two. In whatever phase of 

 plumage, one may know our national bird by its unfeathered 

 tarsi. It is safe to say any eagle seen in the eastern United States 

 is the bald-head, which name, of course, does not indicate that 

 the bird is actually bald like the vultures, but simply hooded 

 with white feathers. 



Duck Hawk 



(Falco peregrinus anatum) 



Called also : PEREGRINE, WANDERING, MOUNTAIN, OR 

 ROCK FALCON ; GREAT-FOOTED HAWK 



Length Male, 16 inches ; female, 19 inches. 



Male and Female Upper parts dark bluish ash, the edges of 

 feathers paler ; under parts varying from dull tawny to whit- 

 ish, barred and spotted with black, except on throat and 

 breast. A black patch on each cheek gives appearance of 

 moustache. Wings stiff, long, thin, and pointed. Tail and 

 upper coverts regularly barred with blackish and ashy gray. 

 Bill bluish, toothed, notched ; the cere yellow. Talons long 

 and black. 



Range North America at large. South to Chile. Nests locally 

 throughout its United States range. 



Season Chiefly a winter visitor, but a perpetual rover. 



328 



