102 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



Has been found breeding in Nodaway Co., where April 28, 

 1880, two eggs were collected near Maryville, now in the collec- 

 tion of Captain B. F. Goss in Milwaukee. Mr. John A. Bryant 

 of Kansas City writes that he took a Prairie Falcon near that 

 city in 1887. 



*356. FALCO PEREGRINUS ANATUM (Bonap.). Duck Hawk. 



Falco anatum. Falco communis var. anatum. Falco peregrinus. Pere- 

 grine Falcon. 



Geog. Dist. From Chile to the arctic circle and from Green- 

 land to the Mackenzie, being replaced on the North Pacific coast 

 from Oregon to the Aleutian Islands by the subspecies pealei. 

 Breeds locally throughout its North American range, except on 

 the southern and western Plains. Winters in the southern Unit- 

 ed States and southward, but returns with the teals and black- 

 birds. 



That the cliffs along our great rivers were formerly the homes 

 of many of these noble falcons is evident from the notes of early 

 travelers. Prince of Wied mentions the nesting of Peregrine 

 Falcons in the rocky cliffs near Rockport, April 14, 1833. Au- 

 dubon, when near the mouth of the Gasconade River, April 27, 

 1843, wrote in his dairy: " Harris saw a Duck Hawk about the 

 cliffs." Again when between Leavenworth and St. Joseph on 

 May 4, 1843, he names the Falco peregrinus among the many 

 birds seen on that day. Dr. Hoy, on the day following his de- 

 parture from St. Louis, steaming up the Missouri, makes this 

 entry in his diary, April 14, 1854: "Saw a Duck Hawk fly to 

 her aerie in the face of an inaccessible cliff with a duck in her 

 claws to feed her young." During the eighties and early nineties 

 a few pairs still nested along the Mississippi River in the vi- 

 cinity of Grand Tower, near the mouth of the Meramec, near 

 Grimsley station below Cliff Cave, between Alton and Grafton, 

 also on some of their old stands on the lower Missouri, but have 

 since deserted their haunts and are not likely to take them up 

 again. In the collection of Mr. Charles L. Eimbeck at New 

 Haven is a most beautiful pair of Duck Hawks taken near Bluff- 

 ton, where they had a nest in the cliffs. There may still be a 

 few pairs nesting in out of the way places in the Ozarks, but 

 their doom as breeders in Missouri has been sealed, and even as 

 transient visitants they are decided rarities, while formerly they 

 used to be pretty regular sights about the blackbirds' roosts 

 and duck and snipe grounds in March and October. 



