54 
FALCO PEREGRINUS. 
kind, as appears by a letter extant in Gloddaeth library, 
from the lord treasurer Burleigh, to an ancestor of Sir 
Roger Mostyn, in which his lordship thanks him for a 
present of a fine cast of hawks, taken on those rocks, 
which belong to the family. They are also very 
common in the north of Scotland ; and are sometimes 
trained for falconry, by some few gentlemen who still 
take delight in this amusement, in that part of Great 
Britain. Their flight is amazingly rapid ; one that was 
reclaimed by a gentleman in the shire of Angus, a 
county on the east side of Scotland, eloped from its 
master with two heavy bells attached to each foot, on 
the 24th of September, 1772, and was killed in the 
morning of the 26th, near Mostyn, Flintshire.”* 
The same naturalist in another place observes, that 
“ the American species is larger than the European . j- 
They are subject to vary. The black falcon, and the 
spotted falcon of Edwards, are of this kind; each 
preserves a specific mark, in the black stroke which 
drops from beneath the eyes, down towards the neck. 
“ Inhabits different parts of North America, from 
Hudson’s Bay, as low as Carolina; in Asia, is found 
on the highest parts of the Uralian and Siberian chain ; 
wanders in summer to the very Arctic circle ; is common 
in Kamtschatka.” J 
In the breeding season, the duck hawk retires to the 
recesses of the gloomy cedar swamps, on the tall trees 
of which it constructs its nest, and rears its young 
secure from all molestation. In those wilds which 
present obstacles almost insuperable to the foot of man, 
the screams of this bird, occasionally mingled with the 
hoarse tones of the heron, and the hooting of the great 
horned owl, echoing through the dreary solitude, arouse 
in the imagination all the frightful imagery of desola- 
* JBritish Zoology. 
f If we were to adopt the mode of philosophizing of the sapient 
Count de Buffon, we should infer that the European species is a 
variety of our more generous race , degenerated by the influence of 
food and climate ! 
| Arctic Zoology. 
