538 THE RICHARDSON MERLIN. 



No. 217. 



RICHARDSON'S MERLIN.. 



.\. O. I'. Xo. 358. Faico coliimbariiis richardsonii (Ridgw.). 



Synonyms. — Amkrican AIi-;rlin. Kiciiauusux's Pigkon Hawk. 



Description. — .Idiilts somewhat .similar to /'. coliiinbarius hut larger and 

 much lighter in coloration. Adult male: Above bluisli dusky or brownish slaty 

 gray as to ground but much relieved by feather-skirtings of rusty brown, and by 

 blackish shafts; pileuni and hind-neck chiet^y rusty brown ( nrarU- TroiU's brown i 

 finely streaked with black; wings and tail brownish dusky, the former, both on 

 remiges and covert feathers, crossed by numerous interrupted bars of whitish 

 and tawny, the latter tipped w'ith white and crossed with live prominent white 

 bars: flight-feathers and tertials also tipped with white nv grayish; underparts 

 chieHv cream-buit as to ground, but wdiite, immaculate, on throat; jugulum finely 

 pencilled and breast lieavily streaked with sepia (each streak with darker shaft- 

 line) ; sides and flanks still more broadl}- marked, or else sepia spotted with 

 whitish ; flags and posterior underparts sparsely pencilled with sepia or unmarked 

 centrally; lores and a faintly defined superciliary buii'y ; forehead buflV white 

 sharply streaked with black; sides of head and neck forming transitional area, 

 finely streaked buiTy, rusty, sepia, and whitish in varying proportions. .Iduit 

 female: ''Differing in coloration from the male only in |ioints of detail. Ground 

 color of the upperparts clear grayish drab, the feathers with conspicuously lilack 

 shafts ; all the feathers with ]iairs of rather indistinct rounded ochraceous spots, 

 these most conspicuous on the wings and sca])ulars. Secondaries crossed with 

 three bands of deeper, more reddish, ochraceous. Bands of the tail piu'c white. 

 In other respects exactly like male" (Ridgway). [A mounted specimen in the 

 Provincial Museum at \'ic(ciri;i. labelled female, differs in no respect whatever 

 from the male unless it be in heavier streaking of the underparts.] Young birds 

 are said to be more extensively rusty above, with broader and more reddish tail- 

 bands, and to be unmarked on lower tail-coverts and crissum. Length 12.00-14.00 

 (304.8-355.6). Measurement of male: wing 7.70 ("195.6); tail 5.00 (127); bill 

 .50 (12.7) ; tarsus 1.30 (33). Female: wing 9.00 1228.6) : tail 6.10 (154.9) : l)ill 

 .55 (14) ; tarsus 1.40 (35.6). 



Recognition Marks. — Little hawk size; brownish cast of plumage above; 

 heavv ochraceous spotting of wing (much more extensive than in Pigeon Hawk) ; 

 tail crossed by .fU" bands (including tlie terminal liand ). 



Nesting. — Nest: in cavitv of tree or crevice of clifl'; rarely of twigs in tree- 

 top. Eggs: 3-5, creamv buff heavily sprinkled, spotted, and blotched with shades 

 of cinnamon. Av. size, 1.60x1.24 (40.6x31.5). Season: May; one brood. 



General Range. — Interior of North America chiefly east of the Rockies, less 

 common wcsterlv to the Pacific and from northern ]\Iexico ncirth t(i the Sa.s- 

 katchewan — range not precisely separable from that of F. Ctiluiiiharius, but bird 

 often found where typicus is absent. 



Range in Washington. — Not comninn summer resident and migrant east of 

 the Cascades. 



Authorities.—/'. riiiiards,>iii Ri<lgw.. Allen. P.. N. O. C. A'l. 1881, p. 128. 



Specimens. — P'. Prov. C. 



