NORTH AMERICAS liTRDfl. 227 



This beautiful bird, known as the Femoral Falcon, is common, and has a wide 

 range in South and Central America; and specimens of the bird, its nests and eggs 

 have been taken in Southern Texas, along the banks of the Rio Grande, and in 

 Arizona. Dr. James C. Merrill found nests of this species on June 16, 1877, and 

 May 7, 1878, near Fort Brown, Texas; they were placed on the tops of the low Span- 

 ish bayonet, and were simply slight platforms of twigs with depressions, lined with 



359, Aplomado Falcon, 



a little grass. Two nests contained three eggs each. The eggs measure 1.78x1.34, 

 1.84x1.29, 1,73x1.32. Their ground color is white, but so thickly dotted with reddish 

 as to appear of that color; over these are somewhat heavier markings of deeper 

 shades of brown. The three others measure 1.80x1,29, 1.77x1.33, 1.88x1.33. 



[359. 1.] KESTSEL. Falco tinnvnculus Linn. Geog. Dist. — Europe, etc., ac- 

 cidental in Massachusetts. 



Mr. Charles B. Cory, of Boston, Massachusetts, mak«s record of the first oc- 

 currence of this bird in North America. A female specimen was shot by a hunter 

 at Strawberry Hill, Nantasket Beach, Massachusetts, on September 29, 1887, the skin 

 of which is now in Mr. Cory's cabinet.* The European Kestrel thus finds a place in 

 the avifauna of North America. It is a common species in Europe, and one of the 

 most abundant of its tribe in Great Britain. It resembles the American Sparrow 

 Hawk in size and general appearance, and, like that bird, it has the curious habit 

 of poising in midair over a mouse, lizard, frog, or some other object of food before 

 attacking them. In Great Britain it is one of the commonest Falcons, and may be 

 found in all parts of the country. The nest is built in rocky cliffs by the sea coast,. 



* Auk, V. no and 205, 



