FALCONTD^ — THE FALCONS. 153 



Falco cesalon, were found " several full-sized white eggs, clouded at one end 

 by a few bronze-colored spots." A nest was found by Mr. Cheney at Grand 

 Menan, from which he shot what he presumed to be the parent bird of this 

 species. Its four eggs agreed with the descriptions given by Hutchins and 

 Eichardson much more nearly than with the eggs of this species. The eggs 

 found by Mr. Cheney may have been very small eggs of A. cooperi, in whicli 

 case the presence of the columharius on the nest cannot be so easily ex- 

 plained. 



Three eggs, two from Anderson Eiver and one from Great Slave Lake, 

 range from 1.53 to 1.60 inches in length, and from 1.20 to 1.22 in breadth, 

 their average measurements being 1.56 by 1.21. They have a ground-color 

 of a rich reddish-cream, very generally covered with blotches and finer 

 markings of reddish-brown, deepening in places almost into blackness, and 

 varying greatly in the depth of its shading, with a few lines of black. In 

 one the red-brown is largely replaced by very fine markings of a yellowish 

 sepia-brow^n, so generally diffused as to conceal the ground and give to it 

 the appearance of a light buff. Mr. Eidgway, after a careful analysis of the 

 varying markings and sizes of twenty-one eggs, has kindly given the fol- 

 lowing : — 



" Extremes of twenty-one eggs (mainly from Forts Yukon, Anderson, Eeso- 

 lution, and MacKenzie rivers) : largest (10,687, Yukon, June), 1.75 X 1.28 ; 

 smallest (8,808, Anderson Eiver, June), 1.55 X 1.20. The ground-color varies 

 from creamy- white to deep purplish-rufous, there being one egg (4,090, Great 

 Slave Lake, June 6, 1860) entirely and uniformly of the latter color ; the 

 lightest egg (normally marked, 2,663, Saskatchewan) is creamy- white, thickly 

 sprinkled with dilute and deep shades of sepia-brown, thickly on large end, 

 and sparsely, as well as more finely, on the smaller end. The markings vary 

 in color from dilute indian-red to blackish-chestnut. 



" H. richardsoni is larger than columharius, and probably has a larger egg. 

 There are no eggs such as Eichardson describes in the series of colitmbarius 

 in the Smithsonian Collection." 



Tlie var. richardsoni was recognized by Eichardson as distinct from the 

 more common colunibaritis ; and a single specimen, killed at Carlton House, 

 and submitted to Swainson, was pronounced by him, beyond doubt, identical 

 with the common Merlin of Europe. Other specimens have since been 

 procured, and are now in the Smithsonian Collection. They are recognized 

 by Mr. Eidgway as identical with Eichardson's bird, but quite distinct from 

 the JEscdon of authors. He has named the species in honor of its first dis- 

 coverer. Of its history and habits little is knowai. A single pair were 

 seen by Eichardson in the neighborhood of Carlton House, in May, 1827, 

 and the female was shot. In the oviduct there were several full-sized white 

 eggs, clouded at one end with a few bronze-colored spots. Another speci- 

 men, probably also a female, was shot at the Sault St. Marie, between Lakes 

 Huron and Superior, but this was not preserved. 



VOL. in. 20 



