Mr. W. E. Brooks on Richardson's Merlin. 227 



rump 4*7; ? , 5*5. The mantle of the male is of a pale or 

 blue-grey, as in Swainson's Harrier. Broad white borders 

 to lower mantle-feathers, and some of the primaries are 

 broadly edged with white. Both sexes have rufous nuchal 

 collars. The male has five white tail-bars, shaded with 

 blue-grey, and a white tip. The female has the same number. 

 Two of the bars are more or less obscured by the upper 

 tail-coverts, I have seen another example in female 

 plumage with six whitish bars and a white tip, but this, I 

 think, is abnormal. 



The upper plumage of the female is earthy brown, with 

 a strong wash of ash-grey, and all the feathers have yellowish- 

 rusty light edges. The wing-feathers are barred on their 

 inner webs and are spotted on the outer, more or less, with 

 reddish buff, as in the wings of the female Kestrel. The 

 rump of the female is almost a blue-grey, with white borders 

 to the feathers. 



This little Hawk appears to affect principally a central 

 tract of country from Texas to Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, 

 and on to the Saskatchewan country of the North-west 

 Territories. To the west of the Rocky Mountain line of 

 country it extends even to the Pacific coast, and has been 

 obtained in Oregon near Salem. I saw it at Chilliwack, in 

 British Columbia, two or three times ; and an immature 

 male was procured, and lost when my house was burned. 

 It was of the light earthy-brown tone, and had an extra 

 number of tail-bars. A description of it was sent to Mr. 

 Stejneger, who said it was undoubtedly Falco richardsoni. 

 Here I may observe that both F. suckleyi and F. columbarius 

 occur in the Chilliw'ack covmtry, and which of them is the 

 more numerous I cannot say ; but F. richardsoni is much 

 rarer than either of the others. In Ontario and Eastern 

 Canada only F. columbarius has been observed. 



In a letter received from Mr. W. Brewster, of Cambridge, 

 Mass., he says : — " Falco richardsoni is a common enough 

 bird throughout most of the Rocky Mountain region. It 

 breeds in the Saskatchewan country in such numbers that 



