COUES ON BIRDS OF DAKOTA AND MONTANA. 



621 



well, and it is not a species about which there could easily be any mis- 

 take. Its presence here was not entirely unexpected, since it had been 

 already found by Mr. Trippe in Minnesota at lat. 47°, and a degree or 

 two of latitude ivS of course nothing to a bird of such powers of flight as 



this Kite posses55es. 



List of specimens. 



FALCO MEXIOANUS POLTAGRUS, {Cmn.) Coues. 

 American Laniek Falcon. 



At one of the astronomical stations on the west branch of the "Two 

 Forks" of Milk Eiver, no less than four species of large Hawks had their 

 nests within sight of each other and only a few hundred yards apart. 

 These were Swainson's and the Ferrugineous Buzzards, the Common 

 Falcon, and the present species. Speaking of some of these Hawks in 

 an article I recently contributed to the "American JSaturalist" (vol. viii, 

 1874, 596,) I incorrectly omitted the Lanier, and all of the remarks re- 

 lating to one of the nests of the supposed F. communis (the first one 

 there spoken of) apply to the present species, though my account of the 

 other nest, found a few miles away, is entirely accurate and pertinent. 



I am not aware that the Lanier had before been found so far north- 

 west as this, nor had we any reliable accounts of its nidification. In 

 the " Birds of the Northwest" I gave a description of the eggs from a 

 set procured by Dr. F. V. Hay den in the Wind River Mountains. The 

 nest to which I now refer was discovered July 18, 1874, on the perpen- 

 dicular face of the " cut- bank" of the stream. It contained three 

 young, scarcely able to fly. Two of these were shot on the wing close 

 by the nest; the third was subsequently brought to me alive by a 

 soldier. The mother was shot, and, as well as I could determine, fell in 

 a recess of the ground by the nest, in such a position that it could not be 

 recovered. The male was not seen, or at any rate not recognized. This 

 nest was built behind an upright column of earth, partly washed away 

 from the main embankment, in such position that no full view of it 

 could be obtained from any accessible standpoint. But it was cer- 

 tainly placed directly upon the ground, in a little water-worn hollow of 

 the bank, behind the projecting mound, so that it was almost like a 

 burrow. The spot being inaccessible from below, I had a man lowered 

 by a rope from the top of the bank, but during the descent so much 

 loosened earth fell into the place that the nest was completely hidden, 

 so that its structure was left undetermined, if, indeed, there was any 

 special structure. 



