188 FALCO LABRADORUS. 



Mr. Ridgway gives its range as " Labrador, south and westward in winter, 

 and shores of Hudson's Bay." 



As so httle is known respecting the present Falcon, I need make no 

 apology for transcribing all that Audubon writes (' Ornithological Biography,' 

 vol. ii. pp. 552-556) respecting its habits, as follows : — 



"On the 6th August, 1833, while my young friends Thomas Lincoln 

 and Joseph Cooledge, accompanied by my son John, Avere rambling by the 

 rushing waters of a brook banked by stupendous rocks, eight or ten miles 

 from the port of Bras d'Or, on the coast of Labrador, they were startled by 

 a loud and piercing shriek which issued from the precipices above them. On 

 looking up, my son observed a large Hawk plunging over and about him. It 

 was instantly brought to the ground. A second Hawk dashed towards the 

 dead one, as if determined to rescue it ; but it quickly met the same fate, the 

 contents of my son's second barrel bringing it to his feet. 



" The nest of these Hawks was placed on the rocks, about fifty feet from 

 their summit, and more than a hundred from the base. Two other birds of 

 the same species, and apparently in the same plumage, now left their eyry 

 in the cliff, and flew off. The party, having ascended by a circuitous and 

 dangerous route, contrived to obtain a view of the nest, which, however, was 

 empty. It was composed of seaweeds, sticks, and mosses, about two feet in 

 diameter, and almost flat. About its edges were strewed the remains of their 

 food ; and beneath, on the margin of the stream, lay a quantity of wings of the 

 Uria troile. Mormon arcticiis, and Tetrao saliceti, together with large pellets 

 composed of fur, bones, and various substances. 



" My son and his companions returned to the Ripley towards evening. 

 The two Hawks, which they had brought with them, I knew at once to be 

 of a species I had not before seen, at least in America. Think not that I 

 laid them down at once. No, reader ! I attentively examined every part 

 of them. Their eyes, which had been carefully closed by the young hunters, 

 I opened, to observe their size and colour. I drew out their powerful wings. 



