* 
Birds of Massachusetts. 71 
The Lrrrue Corporat, Falco temerarius, is so 
rare a bird that when Nuttall’s work was published, 
the only specimen known, was the one discovered 
in Pennsylvania, and described by Audubon, twenty 
years before. In a spirit of somewhat doubtful 
compliment, he named it after Napoleon, I believe 
from some supposed personal resemblance to that 
great human bird of prey. Nothing is yet known 
respecting its habits, nor the place and the manner 
in which it rears its young; but the singular fact 
just mentioned, that three specimens of a bird so 
uncommon were obtained at the same time in a 
single village, seems to indicate that the species will 
be more common. This would be no unheard of 
thing on the part of hawks, which sometimes ap- 
pear and remain in considerable numbers, where none 
had been found for years, if ever before. 
The GorpeN Eacir, Falco fulvus, a fierce and 
angry bird, loves the wildness of desert and moun- 
tainous regions, where it neither seeks nor fears the 
presence of man. As such tracts are not wanting in 
Massachusetts, it sometimes comes within our bounds; 
but it delights more in ridges as desolate as the White 
Mountains of New Hampshire. It is not common 
anywhere, and is hardly ever seen in the more level 
and cultivated parts of the country. In pace and 
swiftness of flight it is inferior to some other birds, 
but it exceeds them all in the power of its brilliant 
eye; which enables it to aim, with unerring precision, 
atits destined prey. Its flight, if not so rapid as that 
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