RICHARDSON'S PIGEON HAWK 87 



and the birds have paired and chosen nesting sites by the middle of 

 that month." 



Nesting. — Mr. Randall says (MS.) of its nesting habits: "An old 

 crow's nest is invariably used, generally one that is built in the fork 

 of a poplar, 15 to 18 feet from the ground. The nest is always 

 relined with dry inner bark of poplar. Laying commences about 

 the first of May, and four is the usual clutch, but I have twice found 

 five eggs. If the first clutch is taken, the birds will often take 

 possession of another nest, at no great distance from the first, and 

 lay a second clutch of eggs, but I find that the second clutches number 

 only three eggs. If the nest tree is climbed before an egg is laid, the 

 birds always desert the nest; on one occasion of which I have record 

 the birds returned to their first choice on being disturbed at the 

 second nest. This year, 1924, for the first time in my experience, a 

 pair of merlins nested in a nest that was used by merlins in 1923; 

 after the eggs were taken, a pair of Swainson hawks took possession 

 of the nest and reared their young." 



W. J. Brown spent the spring and summer of 1904 at Lethbridge, 

 Alberta, and has sent me his notes on eight nests of this falcon that 

 he found from May 7 to June 5. Five of these were in old magpies' 

 nests, one in an old nest of ferruginous roughleg, and two in old 

 crows' nests. "Two pairs of these birds were nesting in holes in 

 cutbanks, but their nests could not be reached." 



J. E. Houseman (1894) found a nest of Richardson's pigeon hawk 

 near Calgary, Alberta, in a cavity in the top of a black poplar, where 

 the trunk had been broken off. On May 5 it held only one egg, and 

 a week later there were four perfectly fresh eggs, indicating that an 

 egg is laid every other day. "The cavity these eggs were in was 

 about eight inches across, one and one half feet deep, and 22 feet 

 from the ground." G. F. Dippie (1895) found two more nests, the 

 following year, in the same general region, in hollows in large black 

 poplars. 



Frank L. Farley sends me the following notes: "I have found five 

 or six nests of this little hawk, and all have been within a half mile 

 of a lake or river, sometimes within a few hundred feet. Two of 

 these were in spruce trees, in dense spruce woods along the Saskatche- 

 wan River, from 30 to 60 feet from the ground. Two others were in 

 poplars in small groves on the prairie, averaging 25 feet from the 

 ground. Another was in an old covered magpie's nest, 15 feet up 

 in a willow clump. All the nests were loosely constructed and 

 looked as if they had been used previously. All the nests were lightly 

 lined with pieces of the inner lining of poplar bark. Both old birds 

 are very noisy, when one approaches the nest, uttering a shrill, 

 scolding note; this action on the part of the birds often leads to the 

 discovery of the nesting tree." 



