160 HAWKS. \ 



c. Merlins. Aesalon, 



Smaller than b, not banded above but streaked below and 

 with hind neck with light streakings; no dark chest patch. 



1. PIGEON HAWK, A. columbarius. 11.50; dark 

 slaty above, lighter on tail ; back streaked with narrow lines, 

 of black ; beneath, pale buff quite heavily streaked with dark- 

 brown; tail, ashy-white at tip, and crossed with about four 

 bands of the same; wings banded on inner webs with whit- 

 ish, conspicuous in flight, fig. 195. Female and young, 

 browner above and more reddish below. Breeds from the 

 northern border of the U. S. northward, placing its nest either 



-in the branches of a tree or in a cavity in rocks or a tree ; mi-^ 

 grates south in Sep. and early Oct. to winter in northern S. A. ;. 

 north in late March and early April. Common, 



2. RICHARDSON'S MERLIN, A. richardsonii. Differs 

 from 1 in'having the tail crossed by five or six light banda 

 and both outer and inner webs of primaries banded with light, 

 spots. Western N. A. from the Mississippi River to the Pa- 

 cific. 



3. MERLIN, A. REGULUS. Differs from 1 in having the 

 streakings on cheeks crowded into a patch, and in having^ 

 the tail of male crossed by six light bands, female by eight. 

 Europe, Asia, and Africa; accidental in Greenland. 



d. Sparrow Hawks. Tinnunculu • 

 Small hawks marked with chestnut and with two trian- 

 gular black marks on sides of head ; young scarcely different 

 from the adults ; nests placed in holes of trees or in cavitiea 

 of rocks or buildings; eggs, 4 to 6, buff thickly spotted with 

 reddish. 



1. AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK, T. sparverius. 

 10.00 ; chestnut above, lighter below ; top of head and wings^ 

 bluish, center of former usually chestnut; spot on occiput^ 

 bands on back, sub-terminal band on tail (it is tipped with 

 ashy-white), spots on wings above and below, and round spots^ 

 below, black ; primaries, black, banded with white ; throat 



