National Museum, 10; Museum Comp. Zoöl., 2; R. Ridgway, 3. Total, 15.
_Measurements._
+----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+
|Sex.| Wing. | Tail. | Culmen. | Tarsus. |Middle Toe.|Specimens.|
+----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+
| ♂ | 7.75–8.60| 5.70–6.00| .50–.60|1.42–1.55| 1.20–1.30| 8 |
+----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+
| ♀ | 8.50–9.00| 6.00–6.30| .55–.58|1.55–1.65| 1.35–1.40| 7 |
+----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+
Since originally describing this bird, I have seen additional examples,
and still consider it as an easily recognized race, not at all difficult
to distinguish from _columbarius_. Now, however, I incline strongly
to the theory that it represents merely the light form of the central
prairie regions, of the common species; since its characters seem to
be so analogous to those of the races of _Buteo borealis_ and _Bubo
virginianus_ of the same country. It is doubtful whether some very
light-colored adult males, supposed to belong to _columbarius_, as
restricted, should not in reality be referred to this race, as the adult
plumage of the male. But having seen no adult males from the region
inhabited by the present bird obtained in the breeding-season, I am
still in doubt whether the present form ever assumes the blue plumage.
As regards the climatic or regional modifications experienced by the
_Falco lithofalco_ on the American continent, the following summary
of facts expresses my present views upon the subject. First: examples
identical in all respects, or at least presenting no variations beyond
those of an individual character, may be found from very widely
separated localities; but the theory of explanation is, that individuals
of one race may become scattered during their migrations, or wander off
from their breeding-places. Second: the Atlantic region, the region of
the plains, and the region of the northwest coast, have each a peculiar
race, characterized by features which are also distinctive of races
of other birds of the same region, namely, very dark—the dark tints
intensified, and their area extended—in the northwest coast region; very
light—the light markings extended and multiplied—in the middle region;
and intermediate in the Atlantic region.
HABITS. The distribution of the well-known Pigeon Hawk is very nearly
coextensive with the whole of North America. It is found in the
breeding-season as far to the north as Fort Anderson, on the Anderson
and McKenzie rivers, ranging even to the Arctic coast. Specimens were
taken by Mr. Ross at Lapierre House and at Fort Good Hope. Several
specimens were taken by Mr. Dall at Nulato, where, he states, it is
found all the year round. They were also taken by Bischoff at Kodiak.
During the breeding-season it is found as far south as Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, and the northern portions of Maine, and probably Vermont and
New York. It is abundant on the Pacific coast.
In the winter months it is to be met with throughout the more temperate
portions of North America, in Mexico, Central America, and Northern
South America. Dr. Woodhouse mentions finding this species very abundant
especially among the wooded banks of watercourses throughout Texas, New
Mexico, and the Indian Territory.
Mr. March states that this Hawk is a permanent resident in the island
of Jamaica, more frequently found among the hills than on the plains,
and has been known to breed there. It is a visitant of Cuba. Dr. Cooper
thinks they are not very common in Washington Territory, though, as they
are found there throughout the summer, they undoubtedly breed there. In
August, 1855, Dr. Cooper shot one of a small family of young that had
but recently left their nest. They migrate southward in winter, and are
abundant in California in October and November.
Dr. Suckley found them abundant about Fort Steilacoom early in August.
Near Puget Sound this species is thought to breed in the recesses of
the Cascade Mountains, only coming down upon the open plains late in
the summer. Dr. Newberry found it paired and nesting about the Klamath
Lakes, and states that it also occupies all the region south of the
Columbia, in Oregon. Mr. Dresser states that he found this Falcon common
about Bexar and the adjoining counties during the entire year, and that
they occasionally breed near the Medina River. I have been unable to
find any satisfactory evidence that this Hawk ever breeds in any part
of Massachusetts, or anywhere south of the 44th parallel in the Eastern
States, except, perhaps, in mountainous regions.
This Hawk is remarkable for its rapid flight, and its courage and its
enterprise in attacking birds as large as or even larger than itself,
though generally it only preys upon smaller birds, such as Grakles,
Red-winged Blackbirds, Robins, and Pigeons. Dr. Cooper states that
having been attracted by an unusual screaming of some bird close to the
house, he was surprised to find that one of these Hawks had just seized
upon a Flicker, a bird as large as itself, the weight of which had
brought it to the ground, and which it continued to hold in its claws
even after it had been mortally wounded. Dr. Heermann once found one
of these birds just preparing to feed on a large and plump California
Partridge.
In Tamaulipas, Mexico, where Lieutenant Couch found it quite common,
he speaks of it as being very quiet, flying but little, and generally
watching for its quarry from the limb of a dry tree. Mr. Audubon makes
no mention of any peculiarities of habits. Mr. Nuttall was evidently
unfamiliar with it, stating it to be unknown in New England, and a
resident of the Southern States only.
In Nova Scotia, Mr. Downes speaks of it as common, breeding in all the
wooded parts of the country. It is said to be not troublesome to the
farmer, but to feed upon the smaller birds. He mentions that once, on
his voyage to Boston, one of these birds flew aboard and allowed itself
to be captured, and was kept alive and fed readily, but soon after
escaped.
Mr. B. R. Ross, in his notes on the birds and nests obtained by him
in the country about Fort Resolution, Lapierre House, and Good Hope,
mentions this bird as the most common of the true Falcons in that
district, where it ranges to the Arctic coast. Its nest is said to be
composed of sticks, grass, and moss, and to be built generally in a
thick tree, at no great elevation. The eggs, he adds, are from five
to seven in number, 1.60 inches in length by 1.20 in breadth. Their
ground-color he describes as a light reddish-buff, clouded with deep
chocolate and reddish-brown blotches, more thickly spread at the larger
end of the egg, where the under tint is almost entirely concealed by
them. This description is given from three eggs procured with their
parent at Fort Resolution.
From Mr. MacFarlane’s notes, made from his observations in the Anderson
River country, we gather that one nest was found on the ledge of a cliff
of shaly mud on the banks of the Anderson River; another nest was on a
pine-tree, eight or nine feet from the ground, and composed of a few dry
willow-twigs and some half-decayed hay, etc. It was within two hundred
yards of the river-bank. A third nest was in the midst of a small bushy
branch of a pine-tree, and was ten feet from the ground. It was composed
of coarse hay, lined with some of a finer quality, but was far from
being well arranged. Mr. MacFarlane was confident that it had never been
used before by a Crow or by any other bird. The oviduct of the female
contained an egg ready to be laid. It was colored like the others, but
the shell was still soft, and adhered to the fingers on being touched.
In another instance the eggs were found on a ledge of shale in a cliff
on the bank, without anything under them in the way of lining. He adds
that they are even more abundant along the banks of the McKenzie than on
the Anderson River.
Mr. MacFarlane narrates that on the 25th of May an Indian in his employ
found a nest placed in the midst of a pine branch, six feet from the
ground, loosely made of a few dry sticks and a small quantity of coarse
hay. It then contained two eggs. Both parents were seen, but when fired
at were missed. On the 31st he revisited the nest, which still contained
only two eggs, and again missed the birds. He again went to the nest,
several days after, to secure the parents, and was much surprised to
find that the eggs were gone. His first supposition was that some other
person had taken them, but, after looking carefully about, he perceived
both birds at a short distance; and this caused him to institute a
search, which soon resulted in his finding that the eggs had been
removed by them to the face of a muddy bank at least forty yards distant
from the original nest. A few decayed leaves had been placed under them,
but nothing else in the way of protection. A third egg had been added
since his previous examination. These facts Mr. MacFarlane carefully
investigated, and vouches for their entire accuracy.
Another nest, containing four eggs, was on the ledge of a shaly cliff,
and was composed of a very few decayed leaves placed under the eggs.
Mr. R. Kennicott found a nest, June 2, 1860, in which incubation had
already commenced. It was about a foot in diameter, was built against
the trunk of a poplar, and its base was composed of sticks, the upper
parts consisting of mosses and fragments of bark.
Mr. Audubon mentions finding three nests of this bird in Labrador,
in each of which there were five eggs. These nests were placed on
the top branches of the low firs peculiar to that country, composed
of sticks, and slightly lined with moss and a few feathers. He
describes the eggs as 1.75 inches long, and 1.25 broad, with a dull
yellowish-brown ground-color, thickly clouded with irregular blotches
of dark reddish-brown. One was found in the beginning of July, just
ready to hatch. The young are at first covered with a yellowish down.
The old birds are said to evince great concern respecting their eggs
or young, remaining about them and manifesting all the tokens of anger
and vexation of the most courageous species. A nest of this Hawk (S. I.
7,127) was taken at St. Stephen, N. B., by Mr. W. F. Hall; and another
(S. I. 15,546) in the Wahsatch Mountains, by Mr. Ricksecker. The latter
possibly belonged to the var. _richardsoni_.
The nest of this bird found in Jamaica by Mr. March was constructed
on a lofty tree, screened by thick foliage, and was a mere platform
of sticks and grass, matted with soft materials, such as leaves and
grasses. It contained four eggs, described as “round-oval or spherical”
in shape, measuring “1.38 by 1.13 inches, of a dull clayish-white,
marked with sepia and burnt umber, confluent dashes and splashes,
irregularly distributed, principally about the middle and the larger
end.” Four others, taken from a nest in the St. Johns Mountains, were
oblong-oval, about the same size and nearly covered with chocolate and
umber blotches. Mr. March thinks they belong to different species.
Mr. Hutchins, in his notes on the birds of Hudson’s Bay, states that
this species nests on rocks or in hollow trees; that the nest consists
of sticks and grass, lined with feathers; and describes the eggs as
white, thinly marked with red spots. In the oviduct of a Hawk which Dr.
Richardson gives as _Falco æsalon_, were found “several full-sized white
eggs, clouded at one end by a few bronze-colored spots.” A nest was
found by Mr. Cheney at Grand Menan, from which he shot what he presumed
to be the parent bird of this species. Its four eggs agreed with the
descriptions given by Hutchins and Richardson much more nearly than
with the eggs of this species. The eggs found by Mr. Cheney may have
been very small eggs of _A. cooperi_, in which case the presence of the
_columbarius_ on the nest cannot be so easily explained.
Three eggs, two from Anderson River and one from Great Slave Lake, range
from 1.53 to 1.60 inches in length, and from 1.20 to 1.22 in breadth,
their average measurements being 1.56 by 1.21. They have a ground-color
of a rich reddish-cream, very generally covered with blotches and finer
markings of reddish-brown, deepening in places almost into blackness,
and varying greatly in the depth of its shading, with a few lines of
black. In one the red-brown is largely replaced by very fine markings of
a yellowish sepia-brown, so generally diffused as to conceal the ground
and give to it the appearance of a light buff. Mr. Ridgway, after a
careful analysis of the varying markings and sizes of twenty-one eggs,
has kindly given the following:—
“Extremes of twenty-one eggs (mainly from Forts Yukon, Anderson,
Resolution, and MacKenzie rivers): largest (10,687, Yukon, June),
1.75 × 1.28; smallest (8,808, Anderson River, June), 1.55 × 1.20. The
ground-color varies from creamy-white to deep purplish-rufous, there
being one egg (4,090, Great Slave Lake, June 6, 1860) entirely and
uniformly of the latter color; the lightest egg (normally marked, 2,663,
Saskatchewan) is creamy-white, thickly sprinkled with dilute and deep
shades of sepia-brown, thickly on large end, and sparsely, as well as
more finely, on the smaller end. The markings vary in color from dilute
indian-red to blackish-chestnut.
“_H. richardsoni_ is larger than _columbarius_, and probably has a
larger egg. There are no eggs such as Richardson describes in the series
of _columbarius_ in the Smithsonian Collection.”
The var. _richardsoni_ was recognized by Richardson as distinct from
the more common _columbarius_; and a single specimen, killed at Carlton
House, and submitted to Swainson, was pronounced by him, beyond doubt,
identical with the common Merlin of Europe. Other specimens have since
been procured, and are now in the Smithsonian Collection. They are
recognized by Mr. Ridgway as identical with Richardson’s bird, but
quite distinct from the _Æsalon_ of authors. He has named the species
in honor of its first discoverer. Of its history and habits little is
known. A single pair were seen by Richardson in the neighborhood of
Carlton House, in May, 1827, and the female was shot. In the oviduct
there were several full-sized white eggs, clouded at one end with a few
bronze-colored spots. Another specimen, probably also a female, was shot
at the Sault St. Marie, between Lakes Huron and Superior, but this was
not preserved.
Mr. Hutchins, in his notes on the Hudson’s Bay birds, states that
the Pigeon Hawk “makes its nest on the rocks and in hollow trees, of
sticks and grass, lined with feathers, laying from two to four white
eggs, thinly marked with red spots.” As Hutchins has been found to be
generally quite accurate in his statements, and as this description does
not at all apply either to the nest or the eggs of the _columbarius_,
it is quite possible that he may have mistaken this species for the
Pigeon Hawk, and that this description of eggs and nests belongs not to
_columbarius_, but to _richardsoni_.