A Massachusetts Duck Hawk Aery 49 



speed of the return, were doubtless owinfi to the fact that he always went 

 somewhat upward from the female. 



In Norway, I have seen a still more wonderful sky -dance of two Pere- 

 grines. The birds were fightinji, high over the moors, and each step of the 

 headlong dance was about a quarter of a mile long. 



To return to the Berkshire Hawks. The notes of the sexes were 

 decidedly unlike. The screams of the male were weaker, with a different 

 inflection, and less constantly iterated, than his mate's. Her common cry 

 was a single -noted, piercing, savage scream, susceptible of tolerably good 

 imitation by a man's voice. Occasionally, and particularly when she had 

 been screaming incessantly for several minutes, her voice dropped to a much 

 lower note, and she uttered a deep, gruff barking, very much like the 

 coarsest note made by the Great Black -backed Gull on its breeding- 

 grounds. This note might also be likened, in some of its variations, to the 

 'honking" of the domestic Goose, though having far less modulation. 

 Though the male's voice was not so loud, he had, in addition to notes 

 much like the female's, though less strenuous, a two-noted, half- whistling 

 call which she appeared to lack. In plumage the two birds were almost 

 precisely alike. Both had strong cheek-patterns, rock-blue backs, lightest 

 on the tail coverts and darkest on the head, with clearly -defined dusky 

 wave -bands, or marblings; both were very ruddy underneath, with almost 

 round black markings, except for the flanks, which were slaty -gray barred 

 with dusky; and both had bright yellow tarsi and feet, and yellow ceres. 



I spent little time in examining the second cliff that day, feeling so con- 

 fident that the nest was on the other. The birds were left undisturbed for 

 a few hours; but their troubles began anew early the next morning when 

 I returned to mv task, with a competent companion and an inadequate rope. 

 We encountered many unexpected difficulties in reaching the guano-heap, 

 even with the rope, owing to the overhung and otherwise obstructive con- 

 formation of the cliff at that point. But at the end of two hours of 

 maneuvering, we managed to rig the rope for an ascent, — possible, but very 

 unpleasant. After a few false starts, I scrambled up. The nest was a 

 farce! Nothing but a shallow, empty pit in the rock -face topped the 

 guano-heap, which was revealed as merely the mark of one of the old birds' 

 favorite perches. Of these there proved to be several, equally conspicuously 

 branded, on the other cliff, to which we now turned our attention. For 

 there the nest must surely be. But no! We searched many a ledge and 

 cranny, with and without the aid of the rope, but found merely feeding- 

 places, littered with pigeon -feathers and daubed with excrement. Further- 

 more, the Hawks, which had once that day made a dash at us on the other 

 cliff, now flew quietlv away, and seemed to take no further interest in us or 

 our proceedings. This was, of course, a very bad sign, which helped to 

 discourage us, and we went away disappointed and perplexed. Next morn- 



