NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 167 



taking to his wings and flew towards the new Church, 

 from the top of which one of the workmen watched his 

 progress across the harbour and over the Chief Justice's 

 house. This interesting Hawk had been in confinement 

 exactly two months, and afforded me an excellent oppor- 

 tunity of observing his habits. The marking of its plumage 

 is correctly given in Wilson's " Ornithology." Its attitude, 

 however, was far from graceful on all occasions, and when 

 the bird reposed upon its perch, it assumed the upright 

 position generally given to the Falcon tribe of Europe. 

 The power and courage of this Hawk I have never been 

 able to test. Full-sized Norway rats he destroyed with 

 as much ease and dexterity as smaller game. On intro- 

 ducing a large live rat into the cage, he would immediately 

 descend from his perch to the floor of his prison, raise one 

 foot when the rat approached, clutching it by the back, 

 and instantly bringing the other foot into play, fairly stood 

 upon the unhappy animal, driving the talons home; and 

 during the very brief struggle which ensued, spreading his 

 wings to support himself on either side, the ends of the 

 primaries being in contact with the bottom of the cage. 

 The Falcon's powerfully curved bill was then called into 

 play, and was invariably applied to the vertebra of the 

 neck, which no doubt was dislocated, as the animal ceased 

 to exist from that moment. All this was the affair of 

 a few seconds only. I have known him to kill three rats 

 in one morning. His voracity was extraordinary, and 

 all kinds of birds, small animals and meat, provided they 

 were tolerably fresh and uncooked, were greedily devoured. 

 As an instance of his gastronomic powers, I once gave 

 him a large rat about an hour before sunset, which was 

 disposed of that evening. On the following day he 

 consumed two others, equally large, and on the morning 

 after, a fourth of the same size, besides a pigeon and a 



