PIGEON HAWK. 
89 
white, and from two to four in number, as well as the situation of its nest, 
as given in his Notes on the Hudson’s Bay Birds, is greatly at variance 
with my own observations. The eggs in these instances, which occurred at 
Labrador, were five ; they measured an inch and three-quarters in length, 
an inch and a quarter in breadth, and were rather elongated ; their ground 
colour a dull yellowish-brown, thickly clouded with irregular blotches of 
dull dark reddish-brown. In that country they are laid about the first of 
June. In the beginning of July I found five in a nest that were ready to be 
hatched. The nests were placed on the top branches of the low firs peculiar 
to that country, about ten or twelve feet from the ground, and were composed 
of sticks, slightly lined with moss and a few feathers. At this season the 
old birds evinced great concern respecting their eggs or young, remaining 
about them, and shewing all the tokens of anger and vexation which other 
courageous species exhibit on similar occasions. The young are at first 
covered with yellowish down ; but I had no opportunity of watching their 
progress, as all that were taken on board the Ripley died in a few days. 
This species also breeds in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. 
A male from the Texas. Length to end of tail 13^ inches, to end of 
wings llfV, to end of claws 11 T 6 2 ; extent of wings 26. 
The mouth resembles that of the other Falcons ; its breadth f|ths. The 
tongue is short, y^ths long, fleshy, deeply emarginate and papillate at the 
base, broadly grooved above, the tip rounded and slightly emarginate. The 
(esophagus is 4£ inches long, its width at the upper part half an inch. The 
stomach is very large, round, 1£ inches in diameter, with a very thin mus- 
cular coat; its central tendons T \ths in diameter. The proven triculus is f^ths 
long ; its glands very numerous, and cylindrical. The intestine is 261 inches 
long, fifths in its greatest diameter. There are merely two slight indica- 
tions of cceca; and the cloaca is globular, with a diameter of 1 inch. 
The trachea is 21 inches long, a little flattened ; the rings 58, well ossified ; 
its breadth at the upper part y^ths, at the lower y^ths. The contractor 
muscles cover the anterior surface entirely in the upper third, and are of 
moderate strength, as are the sterno-tracheales ; a pair of inferior laryngeal 
muscles going to the membrane between the last tracheal and first bronchial 
half ring. The bronchial half rings are 15 and 18. 
Pigeon Hawk, Falco columbarius, Wils. Amer. Ora., vol. ii. p. 107. 
Falco columbarius, Bonap. Syn., p. 38. 
Pigeon Hawk, Falco columbarius , 'Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 60. 
Little Corporal Hawk, Falco temerarius, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 61. Adult Male. 
Falco columbarius, Pigeon Hawlc, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 35, 
Falco Asalon, Merlin, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 37. 
Pigeon Hawk, Falco columbarius, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. i. p. 466 ; Young, vol. i 
p. 381 ; Male, vol. v. p. 368. 
VOL. I. 
14 
