342 THE GAME FALCONS OF NEW ENGLAND. 
” 
me.” “Of these the adult is easily distinguished and is very 
nearly as figured by Audubon under the name of Falco temerarius, 
but of the other two plumages we cannot at present determine 
which is the more mature.” This hawk is called by some the 
bullet hawk on account of its rapid flight. It is one of the most 
destructive of our rapacious birds. Says Samuels, “ As he strikes 
his prey he almost always, instead of clutching it as it falls, 
alights after it has fallen, in the same manner as the great-footed 
hawk.” 
There seems to be some doubt about its nesting in New Eng- 
land or New York. Says Dr. Brewer, ‘I have inquired into the 
matter for the past forty years, and I have yet to know of the 
first instance of the nest and eggs of the pigeon hawk having 
ever been found in any part of Massachusetts. That it may 
breed in some mountainous and wild region is of course possible, 
and my inability to trace it is only negative testimony.” Says 
G. A. Boardman of Maine, “I have never found the nest of the | 
pigeon hawk, but have no doubt it breeds here, as I shoot it all 
summer and winter ; it probably nests in some Sone trees not easily 
seen. Itis nota very common hawk with us.” Says Samuels, ‘It 
is not improbable that it breeds in New England, although I do not 
remember of an authenticated instance.” Says DeKay, ‘‘ It is not 
uncommon in this state (New York). It does not so far as I have 
ascertained breed here.” I have for thirty-six years used my gun 
in Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, having resided in 
each of the above named States. Ihave followed the valley of the 
Connecticut river to its mouth — have followed the Green moun- 
tain range from Vermont into Connecticut without finding the nest 
of the pigeon hawk. For the last twenty years I have employed 
collectors in New England to gather birds and eggs for me, and 
have not received an egg of. this bird. (The same can be said of 
my collectors in other parts of the United States.) N otwithstand- 
ing all this negative testimony I am of the opinion that they nest 
occasionally in New England ; for in 1859 I received six specimens 
of this bird shot in May, June and August, and it seems improb- 
able that six should remain here through the nesting season and 
not breed. In May, 1860, a gentleman who resides some five miles 
distant, informed me that a small hawk came almost every day and 
carried off a chicken for him — that it never missed, for it went so 
like lightning that there was no escaping its grasp. He said that 
a 
