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PIGEON HAWK. 
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, JBriss. Orn. i. p. 238. — Catesh. i. p. 3, t. 3 Bartram, p. 290. — 
Turton Syst. i. p. 162. — P eale's Museum , No. 352. 
FAL CO COL UMBARIUS. — 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 extend- 
ing 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 
