BIKDS OF NOETHEEN CANADA 363 



Farlane found this species, F. rusticolus gyrfalco, forty years 

 later." The Ottawa Museum does not possess a single bird 

 or egg of this species! 



356. Duck Hawk — Falco -peregrinus anatum (Bonap.). 



The skin of a bird shot at Fort Chipewyan in the spring 

 of 1885 was sent to Dr. Bell. On the 18th of June of that 

 year an Indian brought in two eggs which he found on the 

 edge of a cliff at some distance north of the establishment. 

 They had a mere sprinkling of leaves and feathers under 

 them. He saw both parents, and believes they were hawks of 

 this species. We did not observe this hawk at Fort Anderson, 

 but several nests were discovered along some of the most diffi- 

 cult of ascent bank-cliffs of the Lockhart and upper Ander- 

 son rivers over forty years ago. Four eggs is the usual 

 number in a set, and it may be said that the duck hawk con- 

 structs no nest whatever for its offspring — it merely lays its 

 eggs on the bare earth or rock selected for this purpose. All 

 of the discovered nests were found in the country to the 

 southward of the post, and it is douibtful if they breed much 

 beyond latitude 68° north. The duck hawk makes a great 

 row when its eggs are taken. Early in August, for several 

 successive years, yoimg birds of the season, fully fledged but 

 still attended by their parents, were noticed among the lime- 

 stone and sandstone banks of the Mackenzie Eiver. Mr. 

 Eoss says : " Eare to Great Slave Lake." 



Major Bendire states that " this hawk "must be fairly 

 common in the Arctic regions and in the interior of Alaska, 

 as attested by a number of sets of eggs, now in the United 

 States ISTational Museum collection at Washington, taken 

 by Mr. E. MacFarlane (as above mentioned) and by Mr. 

 Strachan Jones, at Fort Eae, Great Slave Lake, and Fort 

 Eesolution and other localities. 



" But a single brood is raised in a season. Incubation 

 lasts about four weeks, and both parents assist in this duty. 

 The eggs of the duck hawk vary considerably in shape as well 



