THE DUCK HAWK. 293 



the Arctic Sea, as well as near the numerous lakes of the Great Basin, and 

 westward over the entire Pacific coast from Lower and southern California 

 northward to Oregon and Washington, it seems to be more abundant than 

 east of the Mississippi River, and breeds throughout the entire range indicated. 

 While it cannot be considered a common species anywhere, still it is the 

 most numerous of our larger Falcons. 



In the northern portions of its range it is only a summer resident, fol- 

 lowing the immense flocks of waterfowl during their migrations, on which 

 it principally subsists. Hares, Ptarmigan, Grouse, Bob Whites, Pigeons, as 

 well as smaller birds, enter largely into its bill of fare, and the poultry 

 yard as well occasionally suffers. Next to the Goshawk the Peregrine Falcon 

 is our most audacious bird of prey. Its flight, when once fairly started 

 in pursuit of its quarry, is amazingly swift; it is seemingly an easy matter 

 for it to overtake even the fleetest of birds, and when once in its grasp resist- 

 ance is useless. I have seen this Falcon strike a Cinnamon Teal (Anas 

 cyanoptera) almost within gunshot of me, kill it apparently instantly from the 

 force of the shock, and fly away with it as easily, and without visible struggle, 

 as if it had been a Sparrow instead of a bird of its own weight. 



Within recent years quite a number of the nests of this species have 

 been taken in the New England States and other localities in the North, 

 records of these captures being noted in various ornithological publications. 

 In a letter now before me, written December 18, 1887, Dr. John W. Det- 

 willer, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, states : " It may interest you to know 

 that the Duck Hawk breeds abundantly in this State. I found a nest con- 



/ 



taining four eggs on a cliff on the west shore of the Delaware River, 12 

 miles below Easton, Pennsylvania ; and about four weeks later a second 

 containing two eggs slightly incubated, which doubtless belonged to the 

 same birds." In the same letter several other localities are mentioned along 

 the Susquehanna River from which the doctor has taken full sets of eggs of 

 this species, and the bird is evidently not uncommon there. From the obser- 

 vations of Mr. L. M. Loomis "On the Summer Birds of Pickens County, 

 South Carolina," in the Auk (Vol. vn, 1890, p. 37), there is little reason 

 to doubt that these birds had a nest with young there, and if other suitable 

 mountain regions throughout North Carolina, the Virginias, northern Ala- 

 bama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky were equally well examined the 

 Duck Hawk would be found breeding there, too. 



Mr. Robert Ridgway, of the Smithsonian Institution, found the Duck 

 Hawk not at all rare in the heavy timber of the river bottoms in the vicinity 

 of Mount Carmel, Illinois. Not less than three nests were found in the 

 immediate vicinity of town, all placed in cavities in the tops of very large 

 sycamore trees, and inaccessible. One of these trees was felled and four 

 fully feathered young were taken from the nest. 1 Col. N. S. Goss also found 

 the Duck Hawk nesting in trees near Neosho Falls, in southeastern Kansas, 



1 Bulletin Nuttall Ornithological Club, Vol. in, 1878, pp. 165, 166. 



