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DUCK HAWK. 

 Palco peregrinus anatum. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Size as well as colors variable. A female before me is 20 

 Inches long, and measures from tip lo tip 46 inches; tall, 8. 

 Male smaller. 



Above blackish-brown or slaty-black, and many feathers 

 with paler edgings; chin, throat, forepart of neck and upper 

 breast yellowish-white, and sometimes nearly immaculate. 

 l>ut usually more or less streaked or spotted; showy black 

 ear patches; frontal feathers whitish, rest of under parts 

 barred and streaked with blackish and lighter colors. Im- 

 mature birds are more brown and lower parts are much more 

 spotted with dark and less barred. Bill bluish-black, except 

 about base, like cere is yellowish; legs yellow; iris brown. 



Sahitat. — North America at large. Resident and breeds 

 sparingly in Pennsylvania. 



This bold and predatory hawk, the largest of the 

 typical falcons found in this region, retires, usually 

 during the summer time, to the mountainous districts, 

 generally in the neighborhood of large streams, and in 

 the winter season (fall, winter and early spring), it is 

 found as an irregular visitor in nearly all sections of 

 our Commonwealth. 



THE NEST AND EGGS. 



Tli(i I)u< k Hawk breeds in several localities in Penn- 

 sylvania, and in some parts of the state it is reported 

 to be quite common. The late Judge Libhart, of Lan- 

 caster county, twelve or fifteen years ago, observed it 

 as a "resident, common on the Susquehanna." Dr. 

 Treichler, -Mr, Roddy and other more recent observers, 

 report the l>uck Hawk in Lancaster county as a rather 

 rare visitor, oommonly seen in winter. The following 

 gentlemen report this species as a native: Hon. Gerard 

 C. Brown, Casper Loucks and George Miller all of 



