THE KESTREL. 309 



however, soon fades after exposure to light. The eggs of the Kestral vary 

 from 1.70 to 1.45 inches in length, and from 1.35 to 1.12 inches in breadth 

 [equal to 43.1 to 36.8 in length and from 34.3 to 28.4 millimetres in breadth]. 

 The female Kestrel when laying does not always deposit an egg each suc- 

 cessive day, and sometimes sits upon the first egg as soon as laid. The 

 female bird usually incubates the eggs, although the male is sometimes 

 found upon them." 1 



The eggs of the Kestrel resemble those of our Pigeon Hawk very 

 closely, although a trifle smaller. The average measurement of thirty-nine 

 of these eggs in the U. S. National Museum collection is 38.5 by 32 milli- 

 metres. The largest egg of the series measures 41 by 32.5, the smallest 

 36.5 by 30 millimeters. None are figured. 



106. Falco sparverius LINNAEUS. 



AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. 



Falco sparverius LINNAEUS, Systema Nature, ed. 10, i, 1758, 90. 



(B 13, O 346, 346, K 420, 420, C 508, 509, U 360.) 



GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE : Whole, of temperate North America, and south (in 

 winter only !) through Central America to northern South America. 



This handsome little Falcon, next to the Cuban Sparrow Hawk the 

 smallest of our diurnal Raptores, is pretty generally distributed over nearly 

 the entire North American continent, excepting the extreme Arctic portions 

 thereof, breeding from Florida and the Gulf coast to the shores of Hudson 

 Bay, and in the interior at least as far north as Fort Rae, Great Slave 

 Lake, in latitude 62 N. Beyond this it does not appear to occur, otherwise 

 that energetic naturalist and collector, Mr. R. MacFarlane, of the Hudson 

 Bay Company, would certainly have met with and reported it. On the 

 Pacific coast it is found from Cape St. Lucas, in Lower California, north- 

 ward to Alaska, where it appears to be rare, however, at least in the 

 interior of that Territory. 



In the eastern United States it is not nearly so abundant as through- 

 out the West, where I have found it a common summer resident almost 

 everywhere, if suitable timber for nesting sites was available. Mr. L. M. 

 Turner did not notice it in northern Labrador and the Ungava district, 

 but it is known to be a summer resident of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, 

 and New Brunswick, and the more southern portions of the Dominion of 

 Canada. 



In winters from about latitude 38 S. and southward in the eastern United 

 Stated, as well as in the Rocky Mountain regioun ; on the Pacific coast from 

 about latitude 41 S., though stragglers remain in sheltered and favorable 

 localities at still higher latitudes throughout the country. 



1 History of British Birds, 1883, Vol. i, p. 45-50. 



