A 
closely that for an instant the wings of the two birds seemed to 
overlap and strike against one another. After dashing ahead of 
the Puck for a distance of ten or fifteen yards, the ftawk turned 
and went upward in a spiral course, allowing the Duck to pass 
directly beneath it. In all three of these instances, the Duck 
passed me within fifteen or twenty yards, making a loud hurtling 
sound with its wings. The speed of the {kawk was sc great that 
the eye could hardly follow it, and yet, as before stated, the 
movement of its wings was apparently not rapid nor suggestive of 
any great exelyction when the bird passed. Ont&*i& oecasion I saw 
the ®Duck and its pursuer before they were within gunshot of me, 
but although I would gladly have tried a shot at the Hawk, I found 
it impossible to get my gun to my shoulder before it had passed 
and was trat of range. On one of the occasions just described, the 
chase passed directly ovdr my head- within eight or ten feet, when 
I distinctly heard a slight rushing sound made by the DuckHawk's 
wings. On the other two occasions, the»only sound that I could hear 
was made by the Duck. Although the Duck Hawk is so noisy a bird 
during the breeding season, I did not once hear one make a cry 
during my stay at this place. The appearance of one of these Hawks 
over a bay several miles in extent where thousands of Ducks were 
feeding would often cause every bird to rise into the air and scat- 
ter in every direction in the utmost terror, but the Coots never, 
so far as I observed, took wing, although I repeatedly saw a Duck 
Hawk scale directly over a bed, passing only a few yards a oveH 
their heads. 
