ICELAND OR JER FALCON. 553 



At day-dawn, the same party, highly elated with their success of the 

 former day, were dispatched in quest of the other two ; but although 

 a third specimen was shot, it flew off to a great distance, fell among the 

 deep moss, and was never found. Several visits to the nest proved fruit- 

 less. The parents I had, and the last young had probably for ever aban- 

 doned the place of its birth. 



While we remained in Labrador, I was ever on the watch for haAvks, 

 and I frequently inspected the country around with a telescope, to try if 

 I could discover some object worthy of my attention. I several times 

 observed the individuals which I have portrayed, ranging high in the 

 air, over an island where multitudes of Puffins were breeding. Many 

 were the instances in which I saw these warriors descend like a streak of 

 lightning, pounce on a Puffin, and carry it off in their talons. Their 

 aerial course I also marked, and was thus enabled to trace them to their 

 habitation. 



Their flight resembled that of the Peregrine Falcon, but was more 

 elevated, majestic, and rapid. They rarely sailed when travelling to and 

 fro, between their nest and the island mentioned, but used a constant beat 

 of their wings. When over the Puffins, and high in the air, they would 

 hover almost motionless, as if watching the proper moment to close their 

 pinions, and when that arrived, they would descend almost perpendicu- 

 larly on their unsuspecting victims. 



Their cries also resembled those of the Peregrine Falcon, being loud, 

 shrill, and piercing. Now and then they would alight on some of the 

 high stakes placed on the shore as beacons to the fishermen who visit the 

 coast, and stand for a few minutes, not erect like most other Hawks, but 

 in the position of a Lestris or Tern, after which they would resume their 

 avocations, and pounce upon a Puffin, which they generally did while the 

 poor bird was standing on the ground at the very entrance of its burrow, 

 apparently quite unaware of the approach of its powerful enemy. The 

 Puffin appeared to form no impediment to the flight of the Hawk, which 

 merely shook itself after rising in the air, as if to arrange its plumage, as 

 the Fish Hawk does when it has emerged from the water with a fish in 

 its talons. 



The four Falcons mentioned were all that were seen of this species 

 during our expedition, and I am inclined to think that these birds must 

 be rare in that part of Labrador. On dissecting them, I found them to 

 be a male and a female, and saw that the latter had laid eggs that season. 



