252 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



355, Prairie Falcon. 



Falco mexicaiius, Schleg. 1841. 



The first time the writer observed this species was in Septem- 

 ber, 1885, at Rush Lake, Assa., on the line of the C. P. Ry. The e 

 were a number of them and they seemed to be quite tame. Each 

 telegraph pole was occupied, and as the bird was new to me I 

 shot one. For years after this I saw no more, but in the spring 

 of 1892 Mr. Spreadborough shot one at Indian Head, Assa. In the 

 summer of 1895 none was seen on a traverse of 600 miles or 

 until we reached the West Butte. At the police station named 

 Pend d'Orielle, on the Milk River, they were numerous and doubt- 

 less they bred there. 



One specimen was taken at Deer Park, Columbia River, B.C., 

 June 9, 1890. {Spreadborough) Formerly a regular fall and- 

 winter visitor and may breed in the mountains in the lower Fraser 

 Valley, B.C. {Brooks.) Taken at Comox, Vancouver Island, 

 December, 1894, by Mr. W. Harvey. {Fannin.) 



Breeding Notes. — At one of our astronomical stations, on the 

 west branch of the " Two Forks " of Milk River 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 Ferruginous buzzards, the common falcon and the present 

 species. * * * The nest to which I now reff r was 



discovered i8th July, 1874, on the perpendicular 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 to the nest, and the 

 third was brought to me alive by a soldier. This nest was built 

 behind an upright column of earth, partly washed away from the 

 main embankment, in such a position that no full view of it could 

 be obtained from any accessible standpoint. But it was certainly 

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

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

 burrow. {Coues on Birds of Dakotah and Montana!) 



I have a set of four eggs taken in southern Alberta, May 17th, 

 1897. The nest is merely eggs simply laid on the gravel in a 

 hollow on the high bank of a river. {W. Raitte.) 

 museum specimens. 



Two ; one taken at Rush Lake, Assa., by the writer, Septem- 

 ber i6th, 1885. The other taken at Indian Head, Assa., in Sep- 

 tember, 1891, by W. Spreadborough. 



