226 



NESTS AND EGGS OF 



used to hawk for quails, snipes and larks. The rugged mountain ranges on the 

 Scottish Jjorder furnish many hreeding places for the Merlin. The site generally se- 

 lected is the side of some ravine, a projecting rock, hank, or tuft of heath. The- 

 n€st consists of a scanty supply of sticks, heather, grass or moss, loosely arranged. 



353. 1. Merlin (From Brehm). 



The eggs are thi'ee, four or five in numher; Bewick gays six; Temminck, five or six. 

 They are bluish-white, spotted and blotched, generally more thickly at the larger 

 end, with deep reddish-brown. Average size, 1.49x1.20. Eleven sets of five eggs 

 each are in Mr. Crandall's extensive collection. These v/ere taken in Lapland and 

 various localities in Iceland, all in June between the dates ranging from the 3d to the 

 14th. The average size of the fifty-five eggs is 1.58x1.23 inches; the longest being 

 1.65x1.26, the shortest 1.50x1.24. 



359. APLOMADO FALCON. Falco fusco-cwrulescens Vieill. 

 Southern Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, south to Patagonia. 



Geog. Dist.— 



