THE DUCK HAWK. 297 



markings are well defined, in others confluent, giving them a clouded 

 appearance; the majority are pretty evenly marked throughout, in a few 

 they are more heavily spotted on one of the ends. Compared with the eggs 

 of other Falcons they are decidedly darker colored, resembling the heavier 

 marked and darker specimens of the eggs of Audubon's Caracara (Polyborus 

 cheriway), 



The average measurement of sixty-one specimens in the U. S. National 

 Museum collection is 52.5 by 41 millimetres. The largest of these eggs 

 measures 57 by 43, the smallest 48.5 by 38.5; and a runt egg but 38.5 by 

 30 millimetres. 



Of the type specimens selected to show some of the styles of coloration, 

 No. 6191 (PI. 10, Fig. 5), a single egg, was collected by Mr. James Lockhart, 

 near Fort Yukon, Alaska, in June, 1863; No. 10181 (PI. 10, Fig. 6), by Mr. 

 R. MacFarlane, on the Lockhart River, Arctic America, June 5, 1866, from 

 a set of four; and No. 23890 (PI. 10, Fig. 7), by Mr. Denis Gale, on Cache 

 la Poudre Creek, Colorado, April 30, 1889, likewise from a set of four. 



99. Falco peregrinus pealei RIDGWAY. 



PEALE'S FALCON. 



Falco communis var. pealei RIDGWAY, Bulletin Essex Institute, v, December, 1873, 201. 

 Falco peregrinus pealei RIDGWAY, Proceedings U. S. National Museum, in, August 24, 

 1880, 192. 



(B , C 343a, R 414a, C 504, U 35Ga.) 



GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE : Pacific coast region of North America, from Oregon north 

 to the Aleutian and west to the Commander Islands. 



This dark colored race of the Duck Hawk, Peale's Falcon, seems to be 

 a fairly common resident of the Aleutian as well as the Commander Islands. 



Mr. W. H. Ball, U. S. Coast Survey, in his "Notes on the Avifauna of 

 the Aleutian Islands," especially those west of Unalaska Island, published in 

 the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 1874, p. 3, speaks of 

 this subspecies, under the name of Falco gyrfalco LINN., as follows: "A male 

 was obtained in the harbor of Kyska, June 30, 1873, being one of several 

 which had their nests on the brow of a precipitous and inaccessible cliff at 

 the west end of the harbor, perhaps 150 feet above the water. The same 

 species was observed flying over the low island of Amchitka a little later in 

 the season. It does not appear to be common, but was the only Hawk 

 observed in the islands west of Unalaska. It appeared to pass most of its 

 time near the nest and raised a loud outcry when anyone approached the 

 base of the cliff on the beach below. The fragments of several Ptarmigan, 

 probably remnants from some of its meals, were noticed at the foot of the 

 bluff below the nest." 



Mr. L. M. Turner, in speaking of this Falcon, says: "Peale's Falcon was 

 frequently observed on Amchitka Island in the month of June, 1881, and on 



