Wiles of the Peregrine Falcon. 
BY W. C. AVEKY, M. D., 'GREENSBORO, AL. 
While' shooting one day, as I entered a large 
field, my attention was attracted to a flock of 
Killdeer, flying high over head. They were as 
noisy as usual and flew in different directions, 
as if they had been disturbed and scattered. 
Far below the Killdeers, came rapidly tow- 
ards me a Peregrine Falcon, one eye glancing 
up at a killdeer many feet above him. His 
long pointed wings beat the air with short, 
quick strokes, as they bore him with increas- 
ing speed till he reached a point just below his 
unwary victim, when, as an arrow from a bow, 
he shot upwards, passing not a foot ahead of 
| the incoming killdeer. The bird literally flew 
into the outstretched talons that seized and 
j bore it several hundred yards to the top of a 
I tall red oak tree. 
Not many minutes had elapsed before I was 
standing under the tree. A well directed charge 
of No. 8 shot was launched at the hawk; the 
killdeer fell from his grasp ; he fell to the 
under side of the limb on which he was perch- 
ed, quivered a few seconds, released his hold, 
and followed his dead quarry to the ground. 
On another occasion, I was shooting ducks in 
a slough in the Warrion bottom, when I heard 
an unusual noise, so loud and so continued was 
it that I took it to be the scream of some large 
bird in distress — a Pileated Woodpecker per- 
haps. I hastened towards the place whence 
the cries proceeded. As I waded into the 
water, I saw a Peregrine Falcon hovering 
above the timber, as a Fish Hawk balauces 
himself before he descends. I started a black 
duck from under a log not ten feet from me; 
as I proceeded other ducks left their hiding 
places and sought safety in flight. They were 
aware of the danger over head in the shape of 
the Falcon, and all the frightful screams of the 
■cunning hawk had not caused them to leave 
the water. My presence in their very midst 
had alarmed them and so soon as they were on 
the wing the Falcon darted like lightning after ' 
them, and they disappeared through the tim- | 
ber with their pursuer close behind them. 
The capture of the Killdeer by the Falcon, in : 
the manner above described, was certainly as- ! 
tonishing. It was evidently a ruse, as the bird 
did not see its enemy, till like an apparition, he 
shot up just ahead and the two taloued feet , 
were extended to receive it. 
The Falcon resorts, also, to cunning when he 
seeks to frighten the ducks from the water by 
screams louder than I had supposed it possible 
for such a bird to make. 
Sometimes the shooter is surprised by the 
presence of the Peregrine Falcon as he falls, as 
it were, from the very clouds. 
Once, upon the coast of North Carolina, near 
Nay’s Head, I had shot several Willets and was 
reloading my muzzle, when a Peregrine Falcon 
stooped at a winged Willet that stood in the 
water not twenty yards from me. The wound- 
ed bird escaped by squatting suddenly. The 
upward flight of the Falcon seemed to me not 
less rapid than had been his descent. I had 
one barrel loaded, the contents of which I sent 
after him without apparent effect, as he to were?! 
in a few seconds beyond the reach of danger. 
One among other occasions, when this ma- 
rauder has suddenly appeared on the scene. I 
shall never forget. I had one day scattered a 
covey of partridges (Colbnus virginianus) in an 
open field, and had hunted the single birds for 
some time with varied success; now killing, 
now missing a bird. Finally my dog pointed 
in a sedge field, at least a half a mile from the 
nearest woods. 1 flushed the bird and missed 
it; almost simultaneously with the shot, a 
Peregrine Falcon stooped from the sky ; com- 
ing downward and directly behind the whir- 
ring partridge, he passed by me swift as the 
leaden shower I had just sent in vain after poor 
Bob White; overtaking but missing his quarry 
before it had flown two hundred yards, it 
seemed to me that the Falcon must have flown 
with at least four times the speed of the part- 
ridge, and that he flew at least a half a mile 
while the latter was going two hundred yards. 
That bird was bagged that day by neither 
shooter nor hawk. I marked it down ; but l 
had not the heart to flush and shoot at it 
again when it had escaped the leaden missiles 
hurled after it, and the sharp talons of the hun- 
gry Falcon that followed in their wake. . 
O.&O. XII. M*y. 1887 P 
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