HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 315 



air, shakes off the spray, and flies off to its nest with 

 its booty, or to an accustomed tree, there to satisfy 

 its appetite, when, without longer repose, it again 

 launches into the air, and sails circling at a great 

 height over the waters. 



The nest of the Fish-hawk is built in a tree, and 

 consists of a mass of sticks, seaweed, grass, turf, &c, 

 and being repaired every year, is sometimes a fair 

 cartload. Among the interstices of the materials, 

 other birds arc permitted to nidify, and several pairs 

 of grakles, or crow-blackbirds, may be often seen tak- 

 ing up their abode around the margin and sides of 

 the structure, " like humble vassals round the castle of 

 their chief," laying their eggs, rearing their young, 

 and living together in the utmost harmony. • 



The Fish-hawk breeds in May ; and both parents 

 are devoted to their young, defending them from any 

 assailant with indomitable resolution, and using both 

 beak and talons with terrible effect. The young are 

 generally three in number. 



The Peregrine Falcon (Falco Peregrinus). This 

 bird so famous as having been used in the princely 

 sport of hawking in old times, is found in this country. 

 Mr. Selby, in his British Ornithology, gives an in- 

 stance of great daring in a Falcon. " In exercising 

 my dogs upon the moors previous to the commence- 

 ment of the shooting season, I observed a large bird 

 of the hawk genus hovering at a distance, which up- 

 on approaching I knew to be a Peregrine Falcon. Its 

 attention was now drawn towards the dogs, and it ac- 

 companied them while they beat the surrounding 

 ground. Upon their having found and sprung a brood 

 of grouse, the falcon immediately gave chase and 

 struck a young bird before they had proceeded far 



