Widmann — A Preliminary Catalog of the Birds of Missouri. 103 



357. Falco columbarius Linn, Pigeon Hawk. 



Falco (Aesalon) litho falco var. columbarius. Falco temerarius. American 

 Merlin. "The little corporal." 



Geog. Dist.— Breeding, except in mountainous regions, north 

 of lat. 43°; in Canada throughout wooded parts from New- 

 foundland to Alaska. In winter from southern United States 

 to West Indies and northern South America. 



In Missouri a rather rare, some seasons a fairly common, 

 transient visitant in March and April, and in October; only a 

 few winter records (January and February). Latest spring date, 

 Alay 6, 1843, when Audubon saw a Pigeon Hawk north of St. 

 Toseph. 



358. Falco richardsonii Ridgw. Richardson's Merlin. 

 Geog. Dist. — Interior and western Plains of North America 



from Mississippi River to the Pacific coast and from Mexico to 

 Saskatchewan and Alberta. 



Is reported from eastern Kansas and southeastern Nebraska, 

 and should be looked for in migration or in winter in western 

 Missouri. Mr. J. D. Kastendieck found a dead one hanging on 

 a fence in Stone Co., about nine miles south of Bilhngs. Mr. 

 Chas. K. Worthen took one at Warsaw, 111., and the species has 

 repeatedly been taken in late autumn as far east as southern 

 Wisconsin. It is probably not so very rare, but easily mistaken 

 for a Pigeon Hawk, from which it may be distinguished by 

 lighter colors, slightly larger size, and by five dark and six gray- 

 ish-white bands in the middle tail feathers, while the Pigeon 

 Hawk has only four dark and five lighter bands. 



*360. Falco sparverius Linn. American Sparrow Hawk. 



Tinnunculus sparverius. American Kestrel. 



Geog. Dist. — From northern South America through eastern 

 North America to Great Slave Lake ; west to Colorado, eastern 

 Wyoming and eastern British Columbia, being replaced in the 

 West by the subspecies phalaena. Breeds from Florida to 

 Newfoundland, and from Louisiana northward throughout its 

 range. Winters from about lat. 40° southward, but chiefly 

 south of the Ohio River. 



This is undoubtedly the most numerous and, because living in 

 the open, the most frequently seen of all hawks. It is a common 

 summer resident on all cultivated lands of the state, arriving in 



