FALCONID/E.— IIYPOTRIORCHIS COLUMBARIUS. 13 



between two claimants to be so regarded. These are each with so A^ery nearly equal 

 pretensions, that at times I have been strongly inclined to give alternately the one 

 or the other as genuine. Yet they are very distinct, and it is not possible they 

 can be varieties belonging to the same species. One of these was obtained in the 

 Two Islands, a group near Grand jNIenan, in the Bay of Fundy. This had been 

 obtamed a few days before it came into my possession. The remains of a bird, 

 which I was told was the parent, were unmistakably those of this species. This 

 egg measures Ijl by 1^ inches, and is nearly spherical. Its ground color is a not 

 very clear white, and is marked by a few bold dashes of a light yellowish-brown, 

 distributed irregularly, but chiefly about the smaller end. There were four eggs in 

 the nest. The latter was coarsely constructed, as I was informed, of sticks and 

 mosses, and resembled that of a crow. The size of this specimen seems dispropor- 

 tionately large for the bird. It corresponds, however, very closely with the descrip- 

 tion of the eggs of this Hawk given in Hutchins's Notes on the Birds of Hudson's 

 Bay.^ This egg is represeiTted, Plate 10, fig. 35. 



On the other hand, I ha^e a copy of Mr. Audubon's drawing taken from the 

 contents of a nest which he was confident was that of the H. columhariiis. This is 

 very difierent in size, shape, and markings. It measures l-fg- by 1^^ inches, its shape 

 is an oblong oval, and it is so thickly covered with deep blotches of chocolate that its 

 ground is entirely concealed. Mr. Audubon refers to the discrepancy between ^Ir. 

 Hutchins's description and his own observations,^ and appears to have been very 

 positive that the eggs which he found in three <lifFerent instances were those of this 

 Hawk. As, however, I have known instances in which even Mr. Audubon has 

 been mistaken, when apparently feeling equally confident, I have hesitated to adopt 

 his drawing, until it can be verified, or the other egg ascertained to belong to a 

 different species. My own supposition is that my egg from Grand Menan is gen- 

 uine, and that Mr. Audubon's drawing may be that of an egg of the Shai-p-shinned 

 Hawk (Accipiter fuscus) . 



The Pigeon-hawk is distributed, in the breeding season, throughout the northern 

 parts of North America. It breeds as far to the south as Mauie on the Atlantic 

 coast, and California on the Pacific. At other seasons it ranges over the entire con- 

 tinent, and extends its wanderings to Cuba, Jamaica, and the northern parts of South 

 America. I have received a specimen from "Wisconsin, where it possibly breeds. 



^ Mr. Hutchins, in his Notes on the Hudson's Bay Birds, informs us that this species " makes its nest 

 on rocks and in hollow trees, of sticks and grass lined with feathers, laying from two to four white eggs, 

 thinly marked with red spots." (Fauna Boreali-Americana, II, 36.) On the next page, Richardson, 

 speaking of his Falco asalon, which, however, was really a variety of the H. columhariiis, says : " In the 

 oviduct there were several full-sized white eggs clouded at one end with a few bronze-colored spots," — 

 a description much more nearly corresponding with the egg from Grand Menan than with Mr. Audubon's 

 drawing and description. 



^ " Mr. Hutchins's description of the eggs of this bird is greatly at variance with my own observa- 

 tions. The eggs, in three instances which occurred at Labrador, were five ; they measured an inch and 

 three quarters in length, an inch and a quarter in breadth, and were rather elongated ; their ground color 

 a dull yellowish-brown, thickly clouded with irregular blotches of dull dark reddish-brown." (Birds of 

 America, 8vo, I, 88, 89.) 



