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'I 



208 



FALCONS, HAWKS, EAGLES, ETC. 



arc eagerly taken, and their habit of robbing the Fish Ilawk of his 

 well-earned booty is too well known to be ctjmniented upon. In some 

 localities, particularly in the south during the winter, tliey live largely 

 upon water-fowl which they capture themselves. 



The voice of the IJald Eagle has a weird, humiin quality. Dr. 

 Fisher says : " At a distance the note of the Bald Eagle is not alto- 

 gether unpleasant, resembling somewhat that of Sea Gulls, but near 

 by it is grating and suggests a maniacal laugh." Dr. William L. Ralph 

 writes in Captain Bendire's Life Histories of North American Birds, 

 p. 277: "The cry of the male is a loud and clear cac-cac-cae, quite dif- 

 ferent from that of the fenude— so much so that I could always recog- 

 nize the sex of the bird by it; the call of the latter is more harsh and 

 often broken." 



The conspicuous white head and tail of adults of this species render 

 it easy of identification even at a considerable distance. Young birds 

 too closely resemble Golden Eagles to be distinguished with certainty, 

 but the rarity of that species in the east makes it pi'obable that any 

 Eagle observed is a Bald Eagle. 



353< Falco islandus /^/v7««. WhitkGvufalcon. J*/.— Head white, 

 finely stroiiked with black ; 8cui)uliirs, iuterscupuiars, and winir-covcrts brown- 

 ish irray, vr/(/r7y iiiiiri^'incd witli white; tail white, tin; eeiitral fVathers with 

 s(>iiu'tiiii(!s broken l)ars; uruler parts white, lij/litiy struaked with grayish 

 brown; under tall-eoverts whiti'. /^«.— Similar, hut upper parts witii n.ir- 

 rowcr wlute inaririns ; tail harred witli l)rownisii jrray, imdi-r parts lieavily 

 streaked with the same cohir. L., 22'UO ; \V., DJOO; T., 10-00; B. from N., -95. 



liainji'. — Arctic rciiions. 



Nest^ on rocky clitl's. Egijs, three to four, varying from erenmy wldte, 

 spotted or blotclicd with cinnamon-brown, to uniform pale reddisli brown, 

 spotted or blotched with shades of the same color, *j;50 x 1-85. 



" The food consists of water-fowl and other birds— largely of vari- 

 ous arctic species of Grouse which are captured on the wing. All 

 these northern Falcons were formerly esteemed for hawking, as they 

 still are by the Mongol races ; their style of flight is magnificent— much 

 swifter than that of the Peregrine— and both are deadly 'footers' 

 (i. e., tenacious of grip), but they lack spirit and dash " (Saunders). 



354. Falco rusticolus Linn. Gray Gvhfai.con. J<i.— Upper parts 

 grayish fuscous, burred and margined with butty white; tail with numerous 

 bars of the same colors; under parts wliite, streaked and sj)otted with black- 

 ish ; legs and under /rt/7-rt*ivr/« barred witli brownish gray. L., 20'00; W., 

 irv.W; T., 9-50; B. from N., -90. 



liniujf. — Arctic regions; in Ainericn, south in winter to the northern 

 United States. 



Ne»t., on cliffs or in trees. Fijgs^ three to tour, not distinguishable from 

 those of the preceding, 2'37 x 1-72. 



