IO. Falco peregrinus anatum. Duck Hawk. ‘Sparrow Eagle.’— 
As my guide and myself were picking our way in a dense fog along the 
Pickens Go, broken trail at the toot ofthe precipice at Table Rock on the 15th of June, 
g n arolina three Duck Hawks with loud cries bore down upon us from the mist- 
0 tr„ , hidden crag above. They flew about in a manner that plainly indicated 
that our presence filled them with anxiety. Occasionally one would 
alight for a few moments on a dead tree. Several shots were fired, but 
the towering cliff' led me to miscalculate the distance, and the only effect 
produced was to frighten them away. In about half an hour they re- 
appeared, screaming as before. In the meantime the fog lifted and the sur- 
face of the cliff became distinctly visible. The object of their solicitude 
was soon apparent, for one of them, with a ground squirrel in its talons, 
alighted in a cievice in the massive wall of rock. Several unsuccessful 
attempts were made to obtain a specimen, which resulted finally in driv- 
ing them from the scene. Four days later I visited the spot a second 
time hoping to secure one with a rifle, but they had grown extremely shv, 
remaining out of sight at the top of the precipice. On the 22d I rode 
across the range from Mt. Pinnacle to Table Rock and, when the brink of 
the cliff was reached, the three Falcons were again encountered, but the 
efforts put forth to capture one were as unavailing as were those on the 
former occasions. I did not find this bird elsewhere in my excursions 
about the mountains. B. Carolina. Loomia, Auk.Vll. Jan. 1890, p. 37. 
THE WASHINGTON POST, 
Summer Birds of Buncombe County, . 
N. Carolina. JohnS. Cairns. THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 20, 1902. 
Falco peregrinus anatum. Duck Hawk. Seen 
occasionally during the summer months. The 
only one seen this year was near Asheville on 
June 10 th, and it will be some time before I 
forget the scrape I got into over it. I had 
stopped in front of a house, and had been 
watching it for nearly half an hour, when the 
bird suddenly swooped down and carried off 
| chicken. Out came the lady of the house in 
great rage, and, as the hawk was out of sigl 
by that time, she turned the full force of her 
j wrath on me, and demanded if I had nothing 
else to do but stand there and watch that 
“Hen Hawk” carry off her chickens. I tried 
i to get out of it the best way I could, and told 
her that it was a rare hawk that I had been 
watching, and that it was not a Chicken Hawk, 
but a Duck Hawk. This only made things 
! worse, for she screamed out at the top of her 
J voice, “Do you call that a Duck Hawk you 
fool, you f Do you call that a duck it carried 
off?” That was the last time that I have 
stopped at that house, and am always in a 
hurry when I pass there. 
/>./$. O.&O. XIV. Feb. 1880 
BIRD OF PREY IN TOWER 
Falcon Decimating' the Lofts 
of Pigeon Fanciers. 
TERROR TO SPARROWS AS WELL 
City Post-office Boasts the Presence of 
a Tenant Which Is Causing Trepida- 
tion Among Prospective Exhibitors at 
the Washington Poultry and P^et Stock 
Show — New Varieties of Animals. 
The annual poultry show given by the 
Washington Poultry, Pigeon, and Pet 
Stock Association will be held this year in 
I the Masonic Temple, from the 9t.h to the 
13th of December, but, unless the Post- 
Office authorities take some steps to dis- 
lodge an exceedingly interesting and vora- 
cious tenant, which has taken up his abode 
in the tower of the Post-Office Building, 
more than one prize pigeon will be missing 
from the show, and the owners wondering 
who the thief could have been. For a 
wild bird to become a citjjtthesident is a 
thing almost unheard of in America. Over 
in Europe, North Africa, and Asia, where 
cities have been the steady growth of 
centuries, many of the wild birds— for ex- 
ample, the English sparrow,'* the Holland 
storks, &c. — have gradually, through long 
periods of time, grown accustomed to ur- 
ban life, but for such a thing to occur in 
America, which has remained a wilderness 
s-ince the beginning of time, with The 
cities little more than the growth of yes- 
terday, it is unusual. Such, however, is 
what has happened at the Post-office, a 
large falcon having taken up his residence 
in the top of the tower, from which he 
sallies forth to prey upon pigeons and 
sparrows all over the city. 
Washington has a large number of pig- 
eon fanciers, many of whom are from 
time to time experimenting in the send- 
ing of messages by pigeons, while others 
have their birds marked by small rings of 
metal or leather around one of their legs* 
and those who for months past have re- 
leased carrier birds that have failed to re- 
port might ascertain their fate by exam- 
ining the collection of rings which Mr. , 
Falcon has left lying about his den, after 
devouring the pigeons he captures. 
Not Altogether Unwelcome. 
However, the new tenant of the Post- 
office has some good as well as bad points 
to his character, and while it is true that 
he has made away with more than - one 
prize pigeon, he has earned his welcome 
to the institution above mentioned by the 
war he wages on the sparrows and pig- 
eons that formerly cluttered the roof with 
their nests and trash. In fact, he has be- 
come quite a thorn in the flesh of the 
sparrows of this city, and by reason of r 
his presence Washington is able' to boast 
of having at least one building which the 
pestiferous English sparrow respects and 
shuns. 
0 
