CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 1. 



RAPTORES, 



23 



THE KESTREL. (See page 26.) 



are banded across, on an ash-colored ground. The length is about twenty inches. It builds in 

 remote forests or on rocky peats, and lays two to four eggs. It feeds on grouse, pheasants, 

 partridges, pigeons, ducks, and geese. It is common in all the United States, especially along the 

 sea-coast. Audubon speaks of it in Louisiana, and Richardson in the region of Melville Island. 

 Wilson gives us a lively description of the manner in which this fine and powerful bird darts down 

 upon the ducks along the shores of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, carrying terror and dismay 

 among the myriad flocks that gather at particular seasons in that quarter. In the breeding 

 time it retires to the gloomy cedar swamps, on the tall trees of which it constructs its nests 

 and rears its young, secure from all molestation. In these wilds, which present obstacles almost 

 insuperable to the foot of man, the screams of this bird, occasionally mingled with the hoarse 

 tones of the heron and the hooting of the Great Horned Owl, echoing through the dreary soli- 

 tude, arouse in the mind all the frightful imagery of desolation. 



The Western Peregrine Falcon, F. niffriceps, found in lower California and Chili, greatly 

 resembles the preceding, but is smaller. 



The American Lanner Falcon, F. jyolyagrus, is brown above and white below ; the length is 

 twenty inches ; found in California, on the Piatt River, and near Puget's Sound. 



The Hobby or Hobby-Falcon — the Hobereau of the French — F. subhuteo, formerly used in 

 hawking at larks and quails, is eleven inches long, of a bluish ash-color above, white below, tinged 

 with red. It builds in lofty trees, or in the orevices of high rocks, laying three or four reddish- 

 white eggs. It is found in Southern Europe and Northern Africa, and feeds largely upon larks, 

 which it captures by soaring above and then pouncing down upon them. It also devours other 

 small birds, and fi-equently condescends to sup on frogs, beetles, and crickets. Swallows have 

 such fear of this hawk that when pursued by it they sometimes fall insensible to the ground 

 from mere frij^ht. 



