A Massachusetts Duck Hawk Aery 



By GERALD H. THAYER 



HE Duck Hawk, or American Peregrine Falcon, is uncommon 

 enough, so that the following account of a remarkably full and 

 satisfying experience with a nesting pair may be of some interest. 

 Mindful of taxidermists and egg -collectors, I shall refrain from 

 naming the exact location of the aery, which may be annually 

 reoccupied for many years to come if no unfortunate accident 

 happens to the grand old birds. Suffice it to say that it is in Berkshire 

 county Massachusetts, many miles from the two aeries recorded by Faxon 

 and Hofifman (Birds of Berkshire County, p. 41). In September, igo2, I 

 found two adult Duck Hawks haunting a certain rugged, craggy hill, 

 which towers above a well-watered and fertile intervale of the beautiful 

 Berkshire country. The more gently sloping sides of this hill are heavily 

 wooded, but the one on which the Hawks were found, being every- 

 where almost precipitously steep, supports only a meager growth of trees, 

 and, where not entirely denuded of soil, is covered mainly with blue- 

 berry bushes and brambles. It contains several sheer and even over- 

 hanging clififs, unscalable by man without the aid of ropes, and in all 

 respects well suited to the nesting of such a lover of bold crags as the 

 Peregrine Falcon. 



On the September morning when I discovered the birds here, they were 

 very wary, and took themselves off after a few gyrations over my head, well 

 out of gun-shot range. Nesting was, of course, long over for the year, 

 but I found ample signs that the hill was a habitual breeding-ground of 

 theirs. Almost all the shelves and ledges overtopping and bordering one of 

 the larger clififs were strewn with feathers, — some fresh, some matted and 

 decomposed. Those of domestic Pigeons were much the commonest, but 

 there were also Ruffed Grouse, Flicker, Kingfisher, Blue Jay and hen 

 feathers. 



Nearly eight months later, on May 31, 1903, I again climbed the hill, 

 determined to find and reach the nest if it were humanly possible. To my 

 great delight, the Hawks were there, and with significantly altered de- 

 meanors. I was half-way up the steep hillside, picking my way between 

 precipices, before 1 heard or saw them; then the pair, mighty female 

 and smaller male, launched themselves, shrieking, into the air from the big- 

 gest and most distant cliff, and in a few seconds were wheeling over me, 

 with frantic cries, most menacingly near. The female was by far the 

 bolder of the two, coming nearer and staying longer than her mate ; and 

 this difference in their characters proved to be constant, and at all times 

 most pronounced. From the field below I had espied a very suspicious- 

 looking white stain, on the border of the nearest high cliff, and this I now 



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