Leaving Charleston some time after, I revisited the Floridas, crossed the whole of the Union, went to Labrador, and in October 1833, returned to my starting place, when I wrote to my generous friend at Savannah, announcing to him my intention of sailing for Europe. By return of post I received the following answer:—"Three of your subscribers are now, alas! dead; but I had taken the precaution to insure the continuation of their subscription for your works. I have called on their executors, who at once have paid over to me their respective amounts for the second volume of the 'Birds of America;' and I now feel great pleasure in enclosing to you a bill for the whole amount, including mine for the same volume, payable in London at par."
Some weeks ago I had the pleasure of forwarding the volumes wanted at Savannah, which I hope have reached their destination in safety; and here let me express my gratitude towards the generous merchant, who, on being made aware of the difficulties which men have to encounter whose success in their pursuits tends to excite the malevolent feelings of their competitors, nobly resolved to exert himself in the cause of science. I trust he will not consider it improper in me to inform you, that on inquiring at Savannah for William Gaston, Esq. you will readily find him.
THE ICELAND OR JER FALCON.
Falco islandicus, Lath.
PLATE CXCVI. Male and Female.
On the 6th August 1833, while my young friends, Thomas Lincoln and Joseph Cooledge, accompanied by my son John, were rambling by the rushing waters of a brook banked by stupendous rocks, eight or ten miles from the port of Bras d'Or, on the coast of Labrador, they were startled by a loud and piercing shriek, which issued from the precipices above them. On looking up, my son observed a large hawk plunging over and about him. It was instantly brought to the ground. A second hawk dashed towards the dead one, as if determined to rescue it; but it quickly met the same fate, the contents of my son's second barrel bringing it to his feet.
The nest of these hawks was placed on the rocks, about fifty feet from their summit, and more than a hundred from their base. Two other birds of the same species, and apparently in the same plumage, now left their eyry in the cliff, and flew off. The party having ascended by a circuitous and dangerous route, contrived to obtain a view of the nest, which, however, was empty. It was composed of sticks, sea-weeds, and mosses, about two feet in diameter, and almost flat. About its edges were strewed the remains of their food, and beneath, on the margin of the stream, lay a quantity of wings of the Uria Troile, Mormon arcticus, and Tetrao Saliceti, together with large pellets composed of fur, bones, and various substances.
My son and his companions returned to the Ripley towards evening. The two hawks which they had brought with them, I knew at once to be of a species which I had not before seen, at least in America. Think not that I laid them down at once—No, reader, I attentively examined every part of them. Their eyes, which had been carefully closed by the young hunters, I opened, to observe their size and colour. I drew out their powerful wings, distended their clenched talons, looked into their mouths, and admired the sharp tooth-like process of their upper mandible. I then weighed them in my hand, and at length concluded that no Hawk that I had ever before handled, looked more like a great Peregrine Falcon.
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 fruitless. The parents I had, and the last young had probably for ever abandoned the place of its birth.
While we remained in Labrador, I was ever on the watch for hawks, 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.