366 THKOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASm 



Kenzie, each one, at Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake, on 

 June 6th, 1860, and Mr. Andrew Flett one at Fort McPher- 

 son, Peel's Eiver, Arctic ISTorth America, in June, 1863. In 

 all these cases the parent was taken and sent on with the 

 eggs. Incubation probably lasts about three weeks, and 

 but a single brood is raised in a season. The eggs are gener- 

 ally four or five in number, and these vary considerably in 

 shape; some are short ovate, others rounded ovate, some 

 nearly oval, and a few specimens elliptical ovate. The shell 

 of the egg is close grained and without lustre. The ground 

 colour when visible is pale creamy white as a rule, and is 

 hidden by a reddish-brown suffusion of various degrees of 

 intensity, and this again is finely marked or boldly blotched 

 with different shades of burnt umber, claret-brown, and vina- 

 ceous rufous. These markings are generally equally and 

 profusely distributed over the entire egg, and are superficial ; 

 occasionally they are most distinct about one of the ends, 

 being disposed in the shape of a wreath. Compared with 

 the eggs of other falcons, they resemble those of the duck 

 hawk (Falco peregrinus anatum) closer than any others as 

 far as colouration is concerned." 



There are but four skins and a set of four eggs taken in 

 Muskoka, Ontario, 24th May, 1890, and received from Mr. 

 W. Kaine, in the Dominion collection at Ottawa ! 



358. EicHAEDsoi^^'s Meexin — Falco richardsoni (Ridgway). 



Writing in 1892, Major Bendire states that: "From 

 an examination of the series of skins of the sub-genus 

 ^salon, in the U. S. National Museum collection, it plainly 

 appears that the northern range of Richardson's merlin is 

 not nearly so extended as that of the common pigeon hawk. 

 Among the numerous specimens received through the exer- 

 tions of some of the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany from the Great Slave Lake, the Mackenzie and An- 

 derson River region, there is not a single one referable to this 

 species, and it is doubtful if it reaches a higher latitude than 



