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SPECIES 3. FdLCO COLUMB.RIUS.
                   PIGEON HAWK.
               [Plate XV. -Fig. 3.-Male.]
LINN. Syst. ed. 10, p. 90, N<o. 19.-LATH. Syn. v. I, P. Io1, Ado.
  86.-L'Epervier de la Caroline, BRISS. Orn. T, P. 378.-CATESB.
  I, p. 3, t. S.-BARTRAM, p. 290.-GMEL. Syst. V. I, p. 281.-
  PEALE'S Auseum, So. 352.
  THIS small Hawk possesses great spirit and rapidity of flight
He is generally migratory in the middle and northern states,
arriving in Pennsylvania early in spring, and extending his
migrations as far north as Hudson's Bay. After building and
rearing his young, he retires to the south early in November.
Small birds and mice are his principal food. When the Reed-
birds, Grakles, and Red-winged Blackbirds, congregate in large
flights, he is often observed hovering in their rear, or on their
flanks, picking up the weak, the wounded or stragglers; and
frequently making a sudden and fatal sweep into the very midst
of their multitudes. The flocks of robins and pigeons are honour-
ed with the same attentions from this marauder; whose daily
excursions are entirely regulated by the movements of the great
body, on whose unfortunate members he fattens. The indivi-
dual from which the drawing in the plate was taken, was shot
in the meadows below Philadelphia, in the month of August.
He was carrying off a blackbird (Oriolus phceniceus) from the
flock, and though mortally wounded and dying, held his prey
fast till his last expiring breath; having struck his claws into its
very heart. This was found to be a male. Sometimes when shot
at, and not hurt, he will fly in circles over the sportsman's head,
shrieking out with great violence, as if highly irritated. He
frequently flies low, skimming a little above the field. I have
never seen his nest.