290 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
or “noble hawks” by the sportsmen of the middle ages and more recent 
times who devoted much of their time to hawking. It kills its game 
either by direct chase, sudden assault, or, more commonly, by rising in 
a spiral until it gets above its victim and then dropping with unerring 
precision upon it. 
Sometimes it nests upon a lofty tree, but its favorite aerie is the inacces- 
sible ledge of some cliff, where it builds a nest of sticks and twigs and rears 
its young in perfect safety. Such a nesting place, the only one known to 
us in Michigan, was located on the south shore of Lake Superior in the 
summer of 1906, by Mr. E. A. Doolittle, who found the young, full-fledged 
and very noisy, carly in July. Among the remnants of food brought for 
the young was found the entire foot and part of the skeleton of a Long- 
eared Owl. 
It lays three or four buffy or deep brown eggs, sometimes nearly uniform 
in color, but more often heavily spotted and blotched with several shades 
of brown. They average 2.10 by 1.60 inches. 
Mr. Robert Ridgway describes three nests of this species found near 
Mt. Carmel, Ill, in the spring of 1878. All were placed in cavities in the 
tops of very large sycamore trees, and were inaccessible. One tree was 
felled and the measured distance from the ground to the nest was 89 feet. 
The eggs in Indiana and Illinois are deposited in April or May; probably 
somewhat later in our latitude. As with most other large hawks the period 
of incubation is about four weeks, and but one brood is reared each year. 
This falcon feeds almost entirely upon large birds, particularly grouse, 
partridges, and water fowl. It is decidedly fond of poultry, and were it 
more common doubtless would prove quite a pest to the farmer. As it 
is, not one Michigan farm in a thousand is visited by this bird in the course 
of a lifetime. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Upper mandible not simply hooked, but with an additional point or “tooth” near the 
tip and a corresponding notch in the lower mandible; first and second primaries longest 
and about the same length, only the first distinctly emarginate, on inner web. 
Adult: Top and sides of head very dark slate or black, the back similar but paler; 
chin, throat and chest white or buffy white, without dark markings, or with a few narrow 
shaft-streaks, but the lower breast, sides and belly sharply barred with black; wings and 
tail blackish closely barred with lighter, mainly on inner webs of feathers. Bill bluish 
black; iris brown; cere and feet yellow. Immature: Similar above, but most feathers 
with light edgings; underparts much more buffy and heavily streaked (not barred) with 
brown or blackish. 
Male: Length 15.50 to 18 inches; wing 11.30 to 13; tail 6 to 7.50. Female: Length 
18 to 20 inches; wing 13 to 14.75; tail 6.90 to 9. 
146. Pigeon Hawk. Falco columbarius columbarius Linn. (357) 
Synonyms: Pigeon Falcon, American Merlin, Bullet Hawk.—Falco columbarius, 
Linn., 1758, and authors generally. Lithofaleo columbarius, Bonap., 1850.—Atsalon 
columbarius, Kaup., 1850.—Falco (A¢salon) lithofalco, B. B. & R., 1875. 
A medium sized falcon, smaller than the Duck Hawk and larger than the 
Sparrow Hawk, with the two outer primaries emarginate on the inner 
web. In color it most closely resembles the Sharp-shinned Hawk, but is 
more heavily built, with shorter tail, more pointed wings, and above all, 
the typical falcon bill. 
Distribution.—The whole of North America, south to West Indies and 
northern South America. Breeds chiefly north of the United States. 
