MERLIN. 
135 
and a quarter inches. The plumage of the first 
year in this sex does not vary much ; a greater 
share of rufous on the upper parts, and the margins 
of the feathers more broadly marked, are the most 
prominent distinctions. 
The geographical range of the Merlin has gene 
rally been considered to extend to North America, 
but we have never received or seen a specimen 
of the true bird from that country. The speci- 
mens which have been sent to us as such we con- 
sider to be the adult state of the Falco columbanus, 
and they also agree with the bird figured and 
described by Mr Audubon under the title of “ Le 
petit Caporal.” Now we have no description of 
the adult male F. columbarium under that name. 
Mr Audubon’s account of the male has all the 
indications of having been taken from an imma- 
ture bird ; and we think it more than probable 
that this may have been confounded for the Mer- 
lin, and from hence its extended range has been 
supposed, while, in reality, the European bird 
does not exist at all in the New World. 
The figure in the Northern Zoology may have 
been taken from a female F. columbarius. 
