THE GAME FALCONS OF NEW ENGLAND. 83 
duck hawk and its habits, have been made along the coast of Lab- 
rador and Newfoundland, where the shores and islands abound with 
rugged cliffs, affording them the very best place to be found any- 
where on our Atlantic coast for nidification. This, in connection 
with an abundance of sea fowls, makes it the favorite resort of 
this bird; yet, it is nevertheless a fact, that all along our moun- 
tainous ranges, whether inland or not, wherever precipitous cliffs 
are found, they do live and breed, probably resorting to the sea- 
shore in the winter, as game is more abundant there. It is said 
that they are not uncommon in Kansas, and are found in Iowa. I 
do not find the duck hawk included in Mr. J. A. Allen’s list of 
the birds of western Iowa, yet Mr. L. E. Ricksecker writes me that 
“he has a fine specimen of the eggs, collected in Iowa, March 21st, 
1868.” 
Manner of nesting. —Ord says, that the duck hawk breeds on 
trees in the gloomy cedar swamps which are almost inaccessible to 
the foot of man. This is probably only his belief, for I am un- 
able to learn from his writings that he ever saw a nest, and further- 
more, he acknowledges that Wilson and himself faithfully, yet un- 
successfully searched the cedar swamps of New Jersey where they 
were supposed to breed. Neither Audubon, nor Nuttall ever saw 
a nest within the limits of the United States, and the former had 
some doubts as to its rearing young within the above named 
limits, yet says, ‘‘I think they breed in the United States, having 
shot a specimen in the month of August, near the falls of Niagara.” 
About the year of 1850, I was aware that a pair of these hawks 
nested on Talcott Mountain,. about ten miles west of Hartford, 
from the fact that they frequented this place in the spring, sum- 
mer, and fall months, and I had also seen an adult and young 
that were shot there in June. Not being aware at that time, that 
the nest had ever been found within the limits of the United 
States, I determined, if possible, to settle the question of their nest- 
ing, and the manner of their nesting, in Connecticut. For this 
purpose, I visited the mountain several times, and offered a liberal 
reward to those living in the vicinity for finding the nest, but it was 
not until 1861 that my efforts were crowned with success. Four 
young were taken from the nest alive, and the parent bird shot. 
This, as I stated in a series of articles which I was then publishing 
on the “ Rapacious Birds of Connecticut,” was about the first of 
June, but on getting the exact date from the captor, I find it was 
