366 LAND-BIRDS. 



(7. COLUMBARIUS. Pigeon Hawk. American Merlin. 

 Not very common in Massachusetts, though known to have 

 bred here.* 



a. About 12 inches long. Above, dark ashy blue ; in the 

 young (and $ ), ashy brown. Forehead, tip and narrow 

 bands of the tail, and markings on the wing, white or whitish. 

 Tail, in $ , also banded with black. Beneath, white, tinged 

 with buff on the breast, with reddish behind, and marked 

 with dark brown. 



b. The eggs average 1.50 X 1.20 of an inch, but otherwise 

 strongly resemble those of the Duck Hawk, unless more finely 

 marked. James Gratley, the so-called "Hermit of Hyde 

 Park," obtained in that town, several years before his death, 

 and before the pine woods were extensively cut down, a small 

 and neatly constructed nest of this species, together with the 

 parents and young. I have another nest and five eggs, which 

 I found near Boston in the early part of May. The latter, 

 which was built in a pine about twenty feet from the ground, 

 is composed of sticks, together with dry grass, strips of cedar 

 bark, and a little moss. The eggs are abnormal, being buff, 

 slightly clouded with a darker shade. 



c. The Pigeon Hawks occur in the winter so far to the south- 

 ward as Florida, but at that season are rare in Massachusetts, 

 much more so than in spring or fall. They vary in numbers 

 from year to year, but occasionally breed here, and this I can 

 from personal experience positively assert. They are prob- 

 ably more abundant as summer residents to the northward, 



* A common and very regular late long since scattered and lost, and the 

 spring and early autumn migrant, oc- young birds obtained by Gatley have 

 casionally seen in winter, also ; at least also disappeared. Hence there is now 

 in Massachusetts and to the southward, slight chance that Mr. Minot's state- 

 It may seem hypercritical to doubt ments can ever be properly verified. 

 Mr. Minot's explicit and very positive Several other writers have claimed 

 assurances that he has found this and it is certainly by no means improb- 

 species nesting near Boston, but none able that the Pigeon Hawk some- 

 of his birds appear to have been shot times breeds in New England, but the 

 and positively identified, and it is no- fact remains that no fully authenti- 

 toriously difficult to distinguish our cated instance of this has ever been 

 smaller Hawks when living and at reported. W. B. 

 large. The eggs here described were 



