THE GAME FALCONS OF NEW ENGLAND. 81 
than formerly. Audubon remarks “ that within his remembrance 
it was a very scarce species in America, and if he shot one or 
two in the course of a winter, he considered himself fortunate ; 
whereas, of late years, he has shot as many in a day, and perhaps 
a dozen in the winter.” This bird is sometimes called the .Great- 
footed hawk, on account of the large size of its feet, which, are 
enormous considering the size of the bird. Those not aware of 
this fact would think it a deformity. On the seashore it is known 
by the name of the Duck hawk, from its habit of capturing and 
feeding upon ducks, and the stories relating to its exploits, as nar- 
rated by the hunters, are too marvellous to be entitled to credit. 
It is said that this bird will follow after the gunners, knowing that 
the report of their guns will start the ducks, and thus afford an 
opportunity for capturing them, and if not successful, will some- 
times seize the game shot by the sportsmen before they can reach 
it, and fly off with it; but as “it is a poor rule that does not work 
both ways,” the hunter as often secures -water-fowls captured by 
the hawks, before they can carry them away or devour them. 
Until quite recently, it has been supposed that the Rocky Moun- 
tains were the extreme western limit of this falcon, and that its 
congener, the Falco nigriceps, was its representative in the western 
portion of this continent, but more recent investigations have 
given this bird a much larger range. In a letter from Professor 
S. F. Baird, of Dec. 24th, 1870, he says, “ the duck hawk, by 
our latest researches, is found from Labrador around the entire 
northern coast to Behring’s Straits, and Alaska, of precisely the 
` same general nature as the bird of eastern United States. The 
western Falco nigriceps is, I am now satisfied, simply a smaller 
race of the duck hawk, and occurs from Puget Sound southward 
to Chili.” 
This falcon is bold and powerful, and not excelled by any bird 
in rapidity of flight. One belonging to Henry I. of France, which 
flew after a little bustard at Fontainebleau was captured at Malta 
the next morning and recognized by the ring which it wore; con- 
sequently it must have flown one thousand three hundred and fifty 
miles. One sent to the Duke of Lerma returned in sixteen hours 
from Andalusia to the Island of Teneriffe, a distance of seven 
hundred and fifty miles. In the British Zoology, there is an ac- 
count of one that escaped from its master, in the shire of Angus, 
a county on the east side of Scotland, with two heavy bells at- 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. V. 6 
