548 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



myself^ as regards the entire subject^ of Mr. Ridgway's im- 

 portant article on T. sparverius and its allies in Baird, Brewer, 

 and Uidgway^s ' Land Birds of North America/' vol. iii. 

 pp. 159-175. 



Mr. E-idgway describes the geographical range of the 

 typical T. sparverius as extending " over the whole of conti- 

 nental North America^ from Panama northward into the 

 British provinces, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific," and 

 adds that it has been found nesting at Fort Resolution, on 

 Great Slave Lake, in lat. 62° N., and that it has also been 

 obtained at Fort Rae, these being the most northerly points 

 to which he has traced it. 



Mr. Ridgway also informs us that in Florida the typical 

 T. sparverius and T. isabellinus both occur, and also speci- 

 mens of a character intermediate between those two forms ; 

 and he likewise mentions a remarkably small race of T. spar- 

 verius inhabiting the peninsula of Lower California, but 

 adds that its "dwarfed size" is its "only distinguishing 

 character." 



T. sparverius appears to be partially migratory. Mr. Ridg- 

 way writes, " In winter these birds, for the most part, desert 

 the northern and middle States, but are resident south of 

 Virginia." 



Mr. Dresser found them in Southern Texas " quite com- 

 mon near San Antonio and to the eastward throughout the 

 whole year"*; but at Duenas, in Guatemala, it is stated by 

 Mr. Salvin that this species " is migratory, being a visitant 

 there only during the winter months " f. I may mention an 

 undoubted example of the true T. sparverius which I have 

 seen from South America. It is a typical adult male, but of 

 unusually small dimensions ; it was recorded in ' The Ibis ' 

 for 1879, p. 206, and is now in the possession of Messrs. 

 Salvin and Godman, to whose kindness I am indebted for the 

 opportunity of examining this example, together with the 

 rest of their very fine series of American Kestrels. The spe- 

 cimen in question was obtained by Mr. F. Simons at Ma- 



• Ibis, 1865, p. 323. 

 t Ibis, 1859, p. 219. 



