18 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



always, instead of clutching it as it falls, alights after it has 

 fallen, in the same manner as the Great-footed Hawk. I 

 have noticed the same fact with the Red-tailed Hawk ; the 

 victim seems to fall dead, or, at any rate, perfectly incapable 

 of motion : whether this is the result of a kind of mesmer- 

 ism, as it were, similar to the influence of the cats on their 

 prey, or the hawk transfixes his quarry through the vitals, I 

 am unable to say. 



The Pigeon Hawk, in alighting on a branch or other 

 object, always descends below the level of it, and rises up ; 

 and usually turns abruptly about, and faces the direction 

 from which it came, as soon as it has struck its perch. 

 This habit is observable in many of the other hawks. 



While perching, the tail is often flirted up and down, 

 and the wings are partially opened and shut in a nervous 

 manner, as if the bird were anxious to be off again in the 

 pursuit of game. 



It is not improbable that it breeds in New England, 

 although I do not remember of an authenticated instance. 

 I have no egg of this bird in my collection, and have never 

 met with its nest. There seems considerable confusion 

 regarding this species, both as to its nesting-place and its 

 eggs. Mr. Hutchins says (" Fauna Boreali Americana," 

 n. 36) it " makes its nest on rocks and in hollow trees, 

 of sticks and grass, lined with feathers ; laying from two to 

 four white eggs, marked with red spots." Audubon, in 

 describing the eggs, says (" Birds of America ") : " Mr. 

 Hutchins's description of the eggs of this bird is greatly 

 at variance with my own observations. The eggs, in three 

 instances which occurred at Labrador, were five ; they 

 measured an inch and three-quarters in length, an inch and 

 a quarter in breadth, and were rather elongated ; their 

 ground-color a dull yellowish-brown, thickly clouded with 

 irregular blotches of dull, dark reddish-brown." Dr. 

 Brewer says (" Synopsis of Birds of North America," as 

 an appendix to Wilson's " Ornithology "^ it " nests in low 



