304 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Dr. Elliott Coues, in speaking of this species, says: "Dr. Richardson's 

 bird was an old female killed at Carlton House, on the Saskatchewan, 

 May 14, 1827, while flying with her mate; in the oviduct there were sev- 

 eral full-sized white eggs, clouded at one end with a few bronze colored 

 spots." 1 



Carlton House is situated on the line of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, 

 near latitude 53° N. Within our own limits, it seems to be most common 

 along the timbered river bottoms of the Missouri and its tributaries and 

 along the borders of the various streams having their sources in the Rocky 

 Mountains from Colorado northward. It is known to breed near Fort Rice, 

 Dakota, where young birds just out of the nest were obtained on July 10, 

 1867. Among the specimens in the U. S. National Museum collection 

 are some from Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, the two Dakotas, the Indian 

 Territory, and New Mexico; also from Washington, Oregon, and California, 

 on the Pacific coast. I have taken several at Walla Walla, Washington, 

 but do not believe that it breeds in the immediate vicinity of this place. 



There are no absolutely identified eggs of Richardson's Merlin in the U. S. 

 National Museum collection. Its mode of nidification and the eggs as well, 

 are doubtless very similar to those of the common Pigeon Hawk, and indis- 

 tinguishable from them, but may possibly average a trifle larger in size. 



103. Falco regulus Pallas. 



MERLIN. 



Falco regulus Pallas, Reise, Russischen Reichs, 11, Anhang, 1773, 707. 



(B — , C — , R — C — , U 358.1.) 



Geographical range : Europe, Asia, and Africa ; accidental on the coast of 

 Greenland. 



This little Falcon, one of the smallest found in Europe, breeds through- 

 out the more northern portions of the Old World, and is entitled to a place 

 in our avifauna, a specimen having been shot at Cape Farewell, Greenland, 

 May 3, 1875, which is now in the collection of the Public Museum at Mil- 

 waukee, Wisconsin. 



According to Mr. Henry Seebohm, "The Merlin breeds throughout north 

 Europe, Iceland, and the Faroes, wintering in south Europe and north Africa, 

 where, according to Loche, a few remain through the summer, retiring to the 

 highest districts to breed. Eastward it breeds throughout northern Siberia, 

 passing through Mongolia and Turkestan on migration, and wintering in south 

 China, northwest India and Scinde." 



Speaking of this species in Great Britain, he says: "The Merlin, in those 

 districts frequented by it from North Derbyshire to the Shetlands, is a resident 

 species, living on the moorlands and the mountains in summer, and retiring to 



1 Birds of the Northwest, 1874, p. 349. 



