Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/589

Rh At day-dawn, the same party, highly elated with their success of the former day, were dispatched in quest of the other two ; but although a third specimen was shot, it flew off to a great distance, fell among the deep moss, and was never found. Several visits to the nest proved fruit- less. The parents I had, and the last young had probably for ever aban- doned the place of its birth.

While we remained in Labrador, I was ever on the watch for haAvks, and I frequently inspected the country around with a telescope, to try if I could discover some object worthy of my attention. I several times observed the individuals which I have portrayed, ranging high in the air, over an island where multitudes of Puffins were breeding. Many were the instances in which I saw these warriors descend like a streak of lightning, pounce on a Puffin, and carry it off in their talons. Their aerial course I also marked, and was thus enabled to trace them to their habitation.

Their flight resembled that of the Peregrine Falcon, but was more elevated, majestic, and rapid. They rarely sailed when travelling to and fro, between their nest and the island mentioned, but used a constant beat of their wings. When over the Puffins, and high in the air, they would hover almost motionless, as if watching the proper moment to close their pinions, and when that arrived, they would descend almost perpendicularly on their unsuspecting victims.

Their cries also resembled those of the Peregrine Falcon, being loud, shrill, and piercing. Now and then they would alight on some of the high stakes placed on the shore as beacons to the fishermen who visit the coast, and stand for a few minutes, not erect like most other Hawks, but in the position of a Lestris or Tern, after which they would resume their avocations, and pounce upon a Puffin, which they generally did while the poor bird was standing on the ground at the very entrance of its burrow, apparently quite unaware of the approach of its powerful enemy. The Puffin appeared to form no impediment to the flight of the Hawk, which merely shook itself after rising in the air, as if to arrange its plumage, as the Fish Hawk does when it has emerged from the water with a fish in its talons.

The four Falcons mentioned were all that were seen of this species during our expedition, and I am inclined to think that these birds must be rare in that part of Labrador. On dissecting them, I found them to be a male and a female, and saw that the latter had laid eggs that season.