BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 99 



the other ; their general and most common color is a reddish or rusty 

 yellowish-brown, spotted and confusedly marked with darker tints of 

 the same, here and there intermixed with lighter. The young are at 

 first thickly covered with soft white down." 



FOOD. 



'* He pursues the smaller ducks, water-hens, and other swimming 

 birds ; and, if they are not quick in diving, seizes them, and rises with 

 them from the water. I have seen this hawk come at the report of a 

 gun, and carry off a teal, not thirty steps distant from the sportsman 

 who had killed it, with a daring assurance as surprising as unexpected. 

 This conduct has been observed by many individuals, and is a char- 

 acteristic trait of the species. The largest bird that I have seen this 

 hawk attack and grapple with on the wing is the Mallard. 



" The Great-footed Hawk does not, however, content himself with 

 waterfowl. He is generally seen following the flocks of pigeons, and 

 even blackbirds, causing great terror in their ranks, and forcing them 

 to perform aerial evolutions to escape the grasp of his dreaded talons. 

 For several days, I watched one of them that had taken a particular 

 fancy to some tame pigeons, to secure which it went so far as to enter 

 their house at one of the holes, seize a bird, and issue by another hole 

 in an instant, causing such terror among the rest as to render me 

 fearful that they would abandon the place. However. I fortunately 

 shot the depredator. 



u They occasionally feed on dead fish, that have floated to the shores 

 or sand-bars. I saw several of them thus occupied, while descending 

 the Mississippi on a journey undertaken expressly for the purpose of 

 observing and procuring different specimens of birds, and which lasted 

 four months, as I followed the windings of that great river, floating 

 down it only a few miles daily. During that period. I and my com- 

 panion counted upwards of fifty of these hawks, and killed several ; 

 one of which was found to contain in its stomach bones of birds, a few 

 downy feathers, the gizzard of a teal, and the eyes and many scales 

 of a fish.'' Audubon. 



I have examined but three of these hawks ; the stomachs of two 

 were destitute of food-materials, the other contained a few feathers 

 of a domestic pigeon. 



357. Falco columbarius, LINN. 



Pigeon Hawk. 



DESCRIPTION. 



A fluff Ma/e. Entire upper parts bluish-slate color, every feather with a black 

 longitudinal line ; forehead and throat white : other under parts pale yellowish or 

 reddish-white ; every feather with a longitudinal line of brownish-black ; tibiae light 

 ferruginous, with lines of black ; quills black, tipped with ashy-white ; tail light 



