254 



PIG EON- HA WK. 



PIGEON-HAWK. {Falco columbarius.) 



PLATE XV.— Fig. 3, Male. 



Linn. Syst. p. 128, No. 21.— Lath. Syn. i. p. 101, No. 86.— L'Epervier de la 

 Caroline, Briss. Orn. i. p. 238.— Catesb. i. p. 3, t. 3.—Bartram, p. 290.— 

 Turton, Syst. i. p. 162. — PeaWs Museum, No. 352. 



FALCO COLUMBARIUS.- Linnaeus. 



Pigeon-Hawk, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. 222. — Falco columbarius, Bonap. Synop. 

 p. 28.— North. Zool. ii. p. 35. 



This small hawk possesses great spirit and rapidity of flight. 

 He is generally migratory in the middle and northern States, 

 arriving in Pennsylvania early in spring, and extending his 

 migrations as far north as Hudson's Bay. After building, 

 and rearing his young, he retires to the south early in 

 November. Small birds and mice are his principal food. 

 When the reed birds, grakles, and red-winged blackbirds 

 congregate in large flights, he is often observed hovering in 

 their rear, or on their flanks, picking up the weak, the 

 wounded, or stragglers, and frequently making a sudden and 

 fatal sweep into the very midst of their multitudes. The 

 flocks of robins and pigeons are honoured with the same 

 attentions from this marauder, whose daily excursions are 

 entirely regulated by the movements of the great body on 

 whose unfortunate members he fattens. The individual from 

 which the drawing on the plate was taken was shot in the 

 meadows below Philadelphia in the month of August. He 

 was carrying off a blackbird (Oriolus phoeniceus) from the 

 flock, and, though mortally wounded and dying, held his prey 

 fast till his last expiring breath, having struck his claws into 

 its very heart. This was found to be a male. Sometimes 

 when shot at, and not hurt, he will fly in circles over the 

 sportsman's head, shrieking out with great violence, as if 



