200 NOTES ON THE 
it. I was for several years amember of a gun club in the city 
where I reside, and I well remember an incident in illustration 
of the characteristics of this hawk which took place while we 
were shooting at pigeons thrown froma trap. The firing was 
rapid at the time, when a pigeon got away and circled around 
over a cornfield directly behind the shooting stand. A little 
out of good range, it nevertheless received the attention of a 
dozen guns, during which time a Duck Hawk appeared in pur 
suit of the escaping pigeon, and undismayed by the roar of the 
guns, drove the bird directly over our heads, where of course 
both birds were sacrificed. It proved to be a female in full | 
plumage. The event occurred on the 13th of August, 1875. 
Sportsmen early learn that this hawk is exceptionally ob- 
noxious to their amusement, be the game whatever it may, pro- 
vided it is not larger than the birdin question. It is a remorse- 
less marauder and murderer, killing for amusement after satis- 
fying its hunger completely. It will attack small birds, and 
as fast as it crushes the life of one out with its talons will drop 
it and attack another. No man should be accounted a genuine 
sportsman with the gun who does not instantly slaughter the 
Duck Hawk at sight. These brigands of the wing understand 
what their own standing is with this class of the genus homo, 
and will give him a wide birth except when running down their 
victims, when they are oblivious to all else. 
They have usually left the State by the 25th of October, ex- 
cept an occasional individual found in the southern counties, 
where they remain far into November. 
FALCO COLUMBARIUS LL. (357.) 
PIGEON HAWK. 
Being exceptionally familiar with this hawk in other sec- 
tions, I am not a little disappointed to find them so extremely 
rare here, although I have long known them to be accounted 
only subcommon in the Mississippi valley. In 1862 I found a 
specimen of this species in the mounted collection of a gentle- 
man who was an expert in the identification of game birds, and 
was making a study of their predatory enemies on wings. He 
obtained it in the fall of the previous year while it was in the 
act of seizing another bird, and was impressed with its unfamiliar 
appearance enough to have it mounted without having known 
its specific identity until I named it for him. In 18671 found a 
representative of each sex in Mr. Howling’s collection, since 
