Species III. FALCO C0LU3fBARIUS. 
PIGEON HAWK. 
[Plate XV. Fig. 3.— Male.] 
LiJfjf. Sysf. ed. 10, p. 90, No. 19. — Lath. Si/n. v. i., p. 101, No. SG.—L'Epervier 
de la Caroline, Briss. Orn. i., p. 378. — Catesb. i., p, 3. t. 3. — Bartram, p. 290. 
— Gmel. St/st. V. I., p. 281. 
This small Hawk possesses great spirit and rapidity of fliglit. He is 
generally migratory in the middle and northern states, arriving in Penn- 
sylvania 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 honored with the same attentions 
from this marauder ; whose daily excursions are entirely regulated by 
the movements of the great body, on wdiose unfortunate members he 
fattens. The individual from Avhicli the drawing in the plate was taken, 
was shot in the meadows below Philadelphia, in the month of August. 
He was carrying ofi" a blackbird [Oriolus phoeniceus) from the flock, and 
though mortally wounded and dying, held his prey fast till his last ex- 
piring 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 highly irritated. He frequently flies low, skimming a little above the 
field. I have never seen his nest. 
The Pigeon Hawk is eleven inches long, and twenty-three broad ; the 
whole upper parts are of a deep dark brown, except the tail, which is 
crossed with bars of white ; the inner vanes of the quill feathers are 
marked with round spots of reddish brown ; the bill is short, strongly 
toothed, of a light blue color, and tipped with black ; the skin surround- 
ing the eye greenish ; cere the same ; temples, and line over the eye, 
light brown ; the lower parts brownish white, streaked laterally with 
dark brown ; legs yellow, claws black. The female is an inch and a 
half longer, of a still deeper color, though marked nearly in the same 
manner, with the exception of some white on the hindhead. The femo- 
rals, or thigh feathers, in both, are of a remarkable length, reaching 
YoL. I.— 3 (33) 
