FALCONID^ — THE FALCONS. 



18^ 



Pandion halieptus (European specimen). 



house, in his report of the expedition to the Zuiii Eiver, speaks of this Hawk 

 as common along the coasts of Texas and California. Dr. Heermann men- 

 tions it as common on the borders of all the large rivers of California in 

 summer ; and Dr. Gambel also re- 

 fers to it as abundant aloncj the 

 coast of that State, and on its 

 rocky islands, in which latter lo- 

 calities it breeds. I am not aware 

 that it has ever been found far- 

 ther south than Texas, on the 

 eastern coast. On the Pacific 

 coast it appears to have a more 

 extended distribution both north 

 and south, but nowhere to be so 

 abundant as on certain parts of 

 the Atlantic coast. s 



Mr. Bischoff obtained this spe- 

 cies about Sitka, where he found 

 it breedinti', and took its ego-s ; 

 and ]\Ir. Dall procured several 

 specimens near ISTulato in May, 

 18(37, and in 1868. They were 



not uncommon, frequenting the small streams, and were summer visitors, 

 returning to the same nest each season. Colonel Grayson found it breeding 

 as far south as the islands of the Tres Marias, in latitude 31° 30' north. 

 The nest was on the top of a giant cactus. Mr. Xantus describes it as 

 breeding on the ground at Cape St. Lucas. 



In the interior it was met with by Eichardson, but its migrations do not 

 appear to reach the extreme northern limits of the continent. That ob- 

 serving naturalist saw nothins; of this bird when he was coasting along the 

 shores of the Arctic Sea, nor did Mr. Hearne find it on the barren grounds 

 north of Fort Churchill. Its eggs were collected on the Mackenzie Eiver 

 hy Mr. Eoss, and on the Yukon by Messrs. Lockhart, Sibbiston, McDougal, 

 and Jones. At Fort Yukon, Mr. Lockhart found it nesting on a high tree 

 (S. I. 15,676). 



On the Atlantic coast it is found from Labrador to Florida, with the excep- 

 tion of a portion of Massachusetts around Boston, where it does not breed, 

 and where it is very rarely met with. It is most abundant from Long 

 Island to the Chesapeake, and throughout this long extent of coast is very 

 numerous, often breeding in large communities, to the number of several 

 hundred pairs. Away from the coast it is mucli less frequent, but is occa- 

 sionally met with on tne banks of the larger rivers and lakes, and in such 

 instances usually in solitary pairs. Dr, Hayden found it nesting in the 

 Wind Eiver Mountains on the top of a large cottonwood tree. 



