ALLEN, NOTES ON THE DUCK HAWK, ETC. 153 



X. Notes on the Habits and Distribution of the Duck 

 Haivk, or American Peregrine Falcon, in the Breeding 

 Season, and Description of the Eggs. By J. A. Allen. 



{Communicated November 14, 1864). 



The Duck Hawk, Great-footed Hawk or American 

 Peregrine Falcon, (Falco anatum Bonap. Falco peregrinus 

 Wilson, Audubon and Nuttall), has not long been known . 

 to breed within the limits of the United States. Dr. T. 

 M. Brewer, in the " North American Oology," (part I, page 

 8,) published in 1857, says that but one authenticated 

 instance has come to his knowledge of its having been 

 met with, in the breeding season, south of Newfoundland. 

 This was near Columbia, in Pennsylvania, where the 

 3 r oung that had fallen from the nest had been procured by 

 Prof. S. S. Haldeman ; but the eggs had not been discov- 

 ered, nor many particulars learned beyond the fact of its 

 breeding there. In a note on this subject from Prof. 

 Haldeman to Dr. Brewer, published in Dr. Brewer's ac- 

 count of this species, Prof. Haldeman sa} r s : " A pair [of 

 these hawks] had a nest for many years about a hundred 

 yards from my house, on a high and almost vertical cliff ; 

 but as a railroad now traverses its base, it is not probable 

 that the species will return to the locality. * * * * The 

 nest was difficult of access, and I never saw it ; but it was 

 once reached, and the }'oung taken by getting down from 

 above." Prof. Haldeman also states that he felt confident 

 they bred among the cliffs at Harper's Ferry, as he had 

 seen them flying about there. 



It has recently been ascertained that the Duck Hawk 

 regularly breeds on several of the mountains in and near 

 the Connecticut River Valley, the young having been 

 procured from Mount Tom and Sugar Loaf Mountain in 

 Massachusetts, and from Talcott Mountain, ten miles west 

 of Hartford, in Connecticut. From accounts that I have 

 received from different persons of a hawk agreeing in 

 habits with the noted Duck Hawk, I am fully satisfied it 

 has long nested on some of the precipitous mountains 

 bordering on the Connecticut River in the States of Ver- 

 mont and New Hampshire. Mr. J. G. Boardman says it 



ESSEX INST. PROCEED. VOL. IV. T. 



