CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 283 



Lake Okanagan in the winter of 1897-98. (Brooks.) One shot at 

 the head of Lake Okanagan, B.C. (Rhoads.) At Circle, Alaska, 

 I shot a young female merlin, which is intermediate between colum- 

 barius and richardsonii. (Bishop.) 



Breeding Notes. — Breeds in Alberta and western Saskatchewan. 

 The first authentic set on record is in my collection. It was taken 

 by Mr. Roy Ivor, south of Moose Jaw, Sask., on May 20th, 1893. 

 The nest, containing four eggs, was made of sticks and weeds and 

 built in a poplar tree-top. The next set recorded was found by 

 J. E. Houseman, at Calgary, Alberta, May 12th 1894. M^^- House- 

 man kindly sent me these eggs to make drawings of some time after 

 he collected them. It is a handsome clutch and is now in the collec- 

 tion of Mr. Crandell. Mr. Dippie has also taken eggs, young birds 

 and parents near Calgary. A handsome set in my cabinet was taken 

 at Fort Saskatchewan, May 17th, 1899, showing this bird usually 

 has eggs by the middle of May. In 1906 we found several pairs in 

 the Belly River bottoms at Lethbridge, Alta., nesting in old nests 

 of the magpie. The female sits very close and does not fly out of 

 the nest until one begins to climb the tree. The male bird is always 

 on the look-out, perched on some tree-top not far from the nest. 

 (W. Raine.) Mr. W. J. Brown, in The Ottawa Naturalist, Vol. xx, 

 p. Ill, gives a very full account of the nesting of this bird near 

 Lethbridge, Alta. He found the first nest, May 7th, 1904. It was 

 an old magpie's nest situated in a poplar about seven feet from the 

 ground.' The nest contained a set of five eggs, which were simply 

 laid on the crumpled mud. During the next three weeks Mr. Brown 

 located three magpie's nests containing full sets of merlin's eggs. 

 Early in June Mr. Brown found another set of five eggs in a deserted 

 nest of the rough-legged hawk. 



358.1. Merlin. 



Falco merillus (Gerini.) Oberholser. 1899. 



A specimen caught at sea, lat. 57° 41' N., long. 35° 23' W., in 

 May, 1867, by Mr. E. Whymper, and by him presented to the 

 Norfolk and Norwich museum, seems to have reached the most 

 western limit of the species known. (Arctic Manual.) A specimen 

 of this species was shot at Cape Farewell, Greenland on 3rd May, 

 1875, which is now in the collection of the public museum at Mil- 

 waukee, Wisconsin. (Bendire, Vol. I., 304.) 



