516 NOTES ON SOME OF THE 



obtained from it in 186/ Dr. Wood kept till the following 

 fall, when they were sent to Professor Baird, and died at the 

 Smithsonian Institution the succeeding spring. Mr. G. A. 

 Boardman informs me that the Duck Hawk in summer keeps 

 about the islands in the Bay of Fundy, and "breeds upon the 

 high cliffs all along this bay.*" 



As stated by me elsewhere, f the Duck Hawks repair to 

 Mount Tom very early in the spring, and for a month or six 

 weeks, as Mr. Bennett informs me, carefully watch and de- 

 fend their eyrie. They often manifest even more alarm at 

 this early period when it is approached than they do later 

 when it contains eggs or young. 



SPARROW HAWK. Falco sparverius Linn. In reference to 

 this species, Dr. Wood communicates the following interest- 

 ing fact. "A few years since a pair of Sparrow Hawks 

 attacked and killed a pair of doves and took possession of 

 the dove cot and laid four eggs. Being too familiar with the 

 farmer's chickens they were shot, and I had the good fortune 

 to obtain two of the eggs." 



GOSHAWK. Astur atricapillus Bon. This species varies 

 most remarkably in the number of its representatives seen 

 in different years, and also in the same season at localities 

 in Southern New England not far apart. Some winters 

 the only season at which it is usually seen in Massachusetts 

 it is extremely rare, while the next it may be one of the 

 most numerous species of its family. In years when it is 

 generally common some of our most careful observers do 

 not meet with it. Dr. Wood writes me, under date of 

 October 22d, 1868, that with him "it has been a very rare 

 winter visitor until the last winter, when they were more 

 common than any of our rapacious birds. I mounted five 

 specimens and sent away several for exchanges. I think 

 twenty were shot within a radius of five miles. I have 

 resided at East Windsor Hill twenty-one years, and have 



* In epist., Sept. 19, 1864. 



t Proceedings of the Essex Institute, Vol. iv. p. 155. 



