Widmann — A Preliminary Catalog of the Birds of Missouri. 101 



Eagles nest frequently on high trees along the shore." Audubon 

 mentions Bald Eagles repeatedly on his journey through the 

 state. When near the mouth of the Gasconade River on April 

 27, 1843, he speaks of curious holes in the cliffs, where the Bald 

 Eagles and Turkey Buzzards entered toward dusk. When be- 

 tween Fort Leavenworth and St. Joseph on May 6, 1843, he dis- 

 covered two nests of White-headed Eagles. And again the fol- 

 lowing day, north of St. Joseph, he saw W^hite-headed Eagles 

 on nests. Dr. Hoy names Haliaetus leucocephalus in his list of 

 birds, made in western Missouri between April 16 and June 15, 

 1854. The swampy region of southeastern Missouri is the place 

 where Baldy held out longest as a resident, but as long ago as 

 the early nineties chances to rear a brood of young Eagles grew 

 very slim, when some of the native market hunters turned into 

 plume hunters. There may still be a few pairs breeding in the 

 cypress swamps, but as a breeder the species must be considered 

 nearly extinct in Missouri. Our new game law means to protect 

 eagles in as much as it does not mention them among the birds 

 exempt from protection, but unfortunately the public does not 

 understand it, and the game wardens do not care, or else the 

 daily press would not continue to make heroes and benefactors 

 of the fellows who wantonly slaughter such a harmless creature 

 and one of the grandest ornaments of any landscape wherever 

 it appears. Since the above was written my son Berthold, dis- 

 covered the existence of at least one pair breeding in the state. 

 On May 23, 1907, he found chained to the porch of a hotel at 

 New Madrid a fully-grown young lately captured from an old 

 eagle's nest in a l^ayou near New Madrid. Two young ones 

 were reared, but one could fly and got away. At the same place 

 he met an old trapper, who boasted of having killed within 37 

 years 487 Eagles, catching them in traps baited with fish. 



*355. Falco mexicanus Schleg. Prairie Falcon. 



Falco polyagrus. Falco lanarius var. polyagrus. Falco lanarius mexicanus . 

 Lanner. 



Geog. Dist. — Western North America from Mexico to Assini- 

 boia and British Columbia : east to the Dakotas, Nebraska and 

 western Missouri; west to California. Breeds throughout its 

 range, and retires from the northern and middle states in winter. 

 Casually to Illinois (Rock Island, Mount Carmel, Bridgeport and 

 Paris) in migration (September and March 19). 



