

SPECIES 3. FdLCO COLUMBJ1RIUS. 



PIGEON HAWK. 

 [Plate XV. Fig. 3. Male.] 



LINN. Syst. ed. 10, p. 90, JVo. 19. LATH. Syn. v. i,p. 101, *Vo. 

 86. L'Epervier de la Caroline, B.RISS. Orn. i, p. 378. CATESB. 

 i, p. 3, t. 3. BARTRAM, p. 290. GMEL. Syst. v. i, p. 281. 

 PEALE'S Museum, 7Vo. 352. 



THIS small Hawk possesses great spirit and rapidity of flight. 

 He is generally migratory in the middle and northern states, 

 arriving in Pennsylvania early in spring, and extending his 

 migrations as far north as Hudson's Bay. After Jmilding and 

 rearing his young, he retires to the south early in November. 

 Small birds and mice are his principal food. When the Reed- 

 birds, Grakles, and Red-winged Blackbirds, congregate in large 

 flights, he is often observed hovering in their rear, or on their 

 flanks, picking up the weak, the wounded or stragglers; and 

 frequently making a sudden and fatal sweep into the very midst 

 of their multitudes. The flocks of robins and pigeons are honour- 

 ed with the same attentions from this marauder; whose daily 

 excursions are entirely regulated by the movements of the great 

 body, on whose unfortunate members he fattens. The indivi- 

 dual from which the drawing in the plate was taken, was shot 

 in the meadows below Philadelphia, in the month of August. 

 He was carrying off a blackbird ( Oriolus phceniceus} from the 

 flock, and though mortally wounded and dying, held his prey 

 fast till his last expiring breath; having struck his claws into its 

 very heart. This was found to be a male. Sometimes when shot 

 at, and not hurt, he will fly in circles over the sportsman's head, 

 shrieking out with great violence, as if highly irritated. He 

 frequently flies low, skimming a little above the field. I have 

 never seen his nest. 



