Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library.
| www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Falco columbarius.
Lake Umbagog, Maine.
1895. behaving in a curious manner. I was taking my bath in our
Sept. 10. cove when I heard a shrill ki-ki-ki very like that of the
(2) Sparrow Hawk for which, indeed, I at first mistook it but as
soon as I got my glass on the bird I saw that it was unques-
tionably a Pigeon Hawk. It was either playing or fighting
with a Crow, I think the former for both birds appeared to be
enjoying the sport. They took turns in darting at one another
when the one attacked would invariably flee, dashing and twist-
ing to avoid the pursuer. After each of these bouts they
would light on the stubs facing one another and usually only
a few feet apart. During the plunges the Hawk would scream
and the Crow uttering a rolling croak. Finally they saw me
and flew off in different directions.
Sept. 24. About 7 A.M just after I had come out of my tent, a Pi-
geon Hawk drove a flock of ten or twelve Blue Jays into the
birch grove on Pine Point and for eight or ten minutes circled
or hovered above them. So long as the Jays remained perched
he made no attempt to attack them although he must have seen
them as more than half the leaves have fallen and the foliage
is everywhere thin. But the Jays appeared to be restless and
ventursome and every half minute or so one of them would rise
above the trees and attempt to fly off. The instant he appear-
ed the Hawk would swoop at him with such velocity that my eye