FALCONS, HAWKS, EAGLES, ETC. 



167 



the Pacific, and from the Dakotas south to Mexico ; casually to Illinois. 

 Breeds throughout its United States range. 



Nest. Usually on ledges of rocky cliffs. Eggs : 3 to 5, usually creamy 

 white, blotched and spotted with reddish brown, spots sometimes covering 

 whole surface. 



Food. Birds, mammals, reptiles, and the larger insects. 



Over the western plains and sagebrush desert country one often 

 sees a small, trimly -built, sharp-winged hawk dashing about in the 

 air, and on scanning the rugged cliffs discerns a white streak high 

 on the rock wall and with a field glass a niche above in which per- 

 haps the edge of a nest or the heads of young may be seen. Some- 

 times you will hear the high-pitched call, kee, kee, kee, as the old 

 birds circle around above their aerie. As they hover about the cliffs 

 their neat forms and quick, hard wing beats are so characteristic 

 that they could be mistaken for no other bird, unless perhaps the 

 duck hawk. Their nests are usually placed in the most inaccessible 

 parts of high cliffs, and the birds are closely associated with many of 

 the grandest western landscapes. 



The falcons are bold freebooters when a farmyard happens to lie 

 in the valley below and their hungry young are calling, but ordi- 

 narily ground squirrels and other small rodents supply most of their 

 food. The few birds they get are mostly caught on the wing. One 

 that shot past me in pursuit of a flock of Gambel quails in southern 

 Utah struck a quail from the flock with such force as to knock it 

 to the ground amid a cloud of feathers, but fortunately for the 

 quail it landed in the brush, where it escaped. VERNON BAILEY. 



Submenus Bhynchodon. 



Tarsus only slightly feathered in front, 

 broadly bare behind; not longer than 

 middle toe without claw. 



356. Falco peregrinus anatum 



(Bonap.}. DUCK HAWK. 

 Adults. Sides of head and neck black, 

 in striking contrast to white or buffy of 

 throat and breast; rest of under parts 

 deeper colored and spotted or barred 

 with blackish ; top of head sooty black, 

 rest of upper parts slaty blue, lighter on 

 rump, indistinctly barred with dusky ; 

 wing quills blackish, inner webs of quills 

 spotted regularly with buffy or yellow- 

 ish brown ; tail blackish, crossed by 8 to 

 10 light grayish bars, and with narrow 

 white tip. Young : under parts yellowish 

 brown or reddish brown, heavily streaked rrom m ^^J^ u. s . Dept . of 

 with dark brown ; upper parts blackish, Agriculture. 



feathers edged with rusty ; tail spotted Fig. 235. 



