. Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean . tail nearlyblack, the tail with about four white bands, or unspotted. No. 4476, adult emalc. Straits of Fuca, April, 1855. Length, ; extent, 97 4475, male, Santa Clara, Cal., November, 1855. Length, ; extent, 23 4477, young male, Shoalwatar bay, August, 1855. Length, ; extent, brown, bill bluish black, cere and feet yellow, in all the .specimens. The pigeon hawk seems to be rather uncommo
. Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean . tail nearlyblack, the tail with about four white bands, or unspotted. No. 4476, adult emalc. Straits of Fuca, April, 1855. Length, ; extent, 97 4475, male, Santa Clara, Cal., November, 1855. Length, ; extent, 23 4477, young male, Shoalwatar bay, August, 1855. Length, ; extent, brown, bill bluish black, cere and feet yellow, in all the .specimens. The pigeon hawk seems to be rather uncommon in the Territory. I shot one in June, 1853,and did not see another until April, 1855, when they had just arrived at the Straits of DeFuca. I was surprised one day by an unusual screaming of some bird close to the house, andgoing out I found that one of these hawks had just caught an unfortunate flicker, whichprobably feared no assault from a bird no larger than itself. Its weight brought the hawk tothe ground, where I immediately shot it. On picking it up the- flicker, though unhurt either ¥. S,P R RExp. & Surveys- 47th-Parallel. Birds Plate i[. ZOOLOGY. 143 by the hawk or my shot, was so frightened that it made no effort to escape from the clawswhich still held it with the grasp of death. When I released it it flew to a tree near by, andfor some time showed its astonishment and joj^ bj^ loud cries. As the pigeon haMk is found in summer, it doubtless breeds in the Territory. In August,1855, I shot one of a small family of young which had but lately left the nest. They probablymigrate southward in winter, as I found them abundant in California in October andNovember.—C. About the 1st of August tliis bird becomes very abundant in the vicinity of Fort T. During the summer and autumn of 1856 I obtained a number of specimens in differentstages of plumage. Several of these had regular oval spots of rust or cinnamon color on theinner vanes of the primaries. In this
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