Zoological Explorations. 269 



"Crow Duck Lake" on the occasion of the trip before alluded 

 to, involving such hardships and torment as is seldom experi- 

 enced even by old and tried collectors. We could not stop 

 to investigate the nest at the time, but during my absence on 

 a moose hunt, these young men determined to repeat the 

 terrible experience of the former trip, for the sake of getting 

 the eagles, and went alone on that sixteen mile tramp through 

 the muskeg, cut down a tree, and secured the eagles. Con- 

 sidering the fact that it sometimes took an hour of the sever- 

 est labor to penetrate a mile of this fearful country, and the 

 danger of being forced to spend a night with no protection 

 against the insect pests, this tramp amounted to genuine hero- 

 ism. I must confess that I wouldn't have undertaken it for 

 all the eagles in the Saskatchewan country, and I am no 

 novice in the matter of roughing it, either. 



Two specimens thus secured had attained their contour 

 feathers all over, with the exception of the down about the 

 neck and breast, which gives them a striking resemblance to 

 vultures, a fact that suggests the possibility of the downy ruff 

 of the condor being nothing more nor less than the persist- 

 ence of an immature plumage, an "embryonic character," so 

 to speak. 



Breeds within the Arctic Circle. (MacFarlane). 



Falco columbarius Linn. Pigeon Hawk. One speci- 

 men, a female, secured at Grand Rapids. 



Falco richardsonii Ridgw. Richm-dson^s Merlin. One 

 specimen, male, secured at Grand Rapids. 



Breeds within theArctic Circle. (MacFarlane). 



Falco sparverius Linn. S-parrotv Hazvk. Very abund- 

 ant near Grand Rapids, where it subsists largely on insects, 

 darting after them from a perch on a dead tree, just as do the 

 flycatchers. 



Six specimens secured. 



