Part 41

var. australis.

b. ♂. Head above, and wings, dark bluish-plumbeous; several outer tail-feathers variegated.

3. Vertex without any rufous. ♂. Anterior portions beneath deep ochraceous, without spots. Tail without indication of bars anterior to the subterminal one; black bars above confined to larger scapulars. ♀. Above ferruginous, with the black bars broader and blacker than in either of the preceding. Hab. Gulf, Caribbean, and Atlantic coasts of tropical continental America (Florida to Cayenne) …

var. isabellinus.

4. Vertex with a patch of rufous. ♂. Black spots beneath numerous, large and circular. Tail with more or less complete black bars anterior to the subterminal band, sometimes regularly barred to the base; black bars above covering entire rufous surface. ♀. Similar to that of isabellinus, but markings beneath more numerous, and pure black instead of brown. Hab. Lesser Antilles, north to St. Thomas …

var. dominicensis.

=B.= Tail tipped with deep rufous; outer tail-feather unvariegated.

5. Head above dark slaty-plumbeous, without any rufous. ♂. Tail continuous rufous to the extreme tip, the subterminal black band narrower than the terminal rufous one, and not continuous; the outer feather entirely rufous, without any black. In other respects much like var. australis. (♀ not seen.) Hab. Chile and Western Brazil …

var. cinnamominus.

Falco (Tinnunculus) sparverius, LINN.

Var. =sparverius=, LINNÆUS.

AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK; AMERICAN KESTREL.

Accipiter (Æsalon) carolinensis, BRISS. Orn. I, 385, 1760. Accipiter minor, CATESB. Carol. I, 5, 1754. Falco sparverius, LINN. Syst. Nat. p. 128, 1766.—PENN, Arct. Zoöl. pp. 211, 212.—GMEL. Syst. Nat. p. 284.—LATH. Ind. Orn. p. 42; Synop. I, 110, sp. 94; Gen. Hist. I, 290.—DAUD. Tr. Orn. II, 142, pl. xii.—SHAW, Zoöl. VII, pl. xxvi.—WILS. Am. Orn. pl. xvi, f. 1, pl. xxxii, f. 2.—JAMES. (WILS.) Am. Orn. I, 56, 60.—LESS. Tr. Orn. p. 95.—BENN. gard. Zoöl. Soc. II, 121.—STEPH. XIII, ii, 38.—CUV. Reg. Anim. (ed. 2), I, 322.—JARD. (WILS.) Am. Orn. I, 262; II, 51.—RICH. & SWAINS. F. B. A. pl. xxiv.—WAGL. Isis, 1831, 517.—BONAP. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. II, 27; Isis, 1832, 1136.—VIEILL. Enc. Méth. III, 1234 (in part).—AUD. Birds Am. pl. cxlii; Orn. Biog. II, 246, pl. cxlii.—BREW. (WILS.) Synop. p. 684; Am. Oölogy, p. 16, pl. xi, figs. 13 and 15 a.—DE KAY, Zoöl. N. Y. II, 16, pl. vii. f. 16.—PEAB. Birds Mass. III, 69.—NUTT. Man. I, 58. Tinnunculus sparverius, VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept. pls. xii, xiii.—BRIDG. Proc. Zoöl. Soc. pt. xi, 109.—GRAY, Gen. B. fol. sp. 10; List Brit. B. Mus. p. 60.—WOODH. Sitgr. Exp. Zuñi & Colorad. p. 60.—CASS. Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil. 1855, 278.—Birds Cal. & Tex. p. 92; Birds N. Am. 1858, 13.—RIDGW. P. A. N. S. 1870, 148.—STRICKL. Orn. Syn. I, 99, 1855. Cerchneis sparverius, BONAP. List Eur. & N. Am. B. p. 5, 1838. Pœcilornis sparverius, KAUP, Monog. Falc. Cont. Orn. 1850, 53. Tinnunculus phalœna, LESSON, Mam. et d’Ois. 1847, 178 (San Blas & Acapulco).

SP. CHAR. Adult male (12,025, Washington, D. C.; W. Wallace). Forehead, lateral and posterior, regions of the vertex, occiput, and wings, bluish-ash. Vertex, nape, scapulars, interscapulars, rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail, fine cinnamon-rufous; scapulars and back barred with black, the bars broadest and most conspicuous posteriorly. Tail tipped with white, and with a broad sharply defined subterminal zone of black, about one inch in width; lateral feather, with outer web and terminal half of inner, ashy-white, the latter with one or two distinct transverse spots anterior to the subterminal one. Wing-coverts with more or less conspicuous cordate spots of black, rather sparsely distributed; basal two-thirds of secondaries and whole of primaries deep black; the latter whitish around the terminal margin and with nine transverse bands of white on inner web of longest (second), the white rather exceeding the black, the points of which do not reach the edge of the feather; lining of the wing white with conspicuous cordate spots of black. Front and superciliary region more hoary than the forehead, almost approaching white. Whole lateral region of the head, with chin, throat, and lower parts, white; the neck, breast, and sides, however, with a deep tinge of ochraceous, the tint hardly approaching the depth of color seen on the nape. On the head there are (considering both sides) seven black spots; the first originating in front of the bare anteorbital space (leaving the lores white), and extending in a stripe downward across the maxillæ, forming a conspicuous “mustache”; the second crosses the tips of the ear-coverts, in form of an oblong transverse spot; the third is smaller, situated as far behind the last as this, and is posterior to the “mustache,” crossing the side of the neck; the last is an odd nuchal spot separating the ash of the occiput from the rufous of the nape. Breast and sides with circular or cordate spots of pure black; these varying in size, but generally larger on the sides. Other lower parts immaculate. Wing-formula, 2=3–4, 1. Wing, 7.10; tail, 4.50; tarsus, 1.32; middle toe, .98; culmen, .45.

Adult female (10,751, Fort Bridger, Utah; C. Drexler). Blue above confined to the head, which shows the rufous patch as in the male; entire upper parts rufous, lighter and less purplish than in the male, everywhere barred with black. Tail with twelve sharply defined narrow bars of black; the subterminal broadest, and about three eighths of an inch in width. Longest primary with eleven transverse spaces of pale rufous, nearly twice as wide as the dusky ones, which scarcely touch the edge. Beneath yellowish-white, paler than in the male, breast and sides with rusty longitudinal spots. Head as in the male. Wing, 7.60; tail, 5.20; tarsus, 1.50; middle toe, .90; bill, .50. Wing-formula, 2=3–4–1.

Young male (5,581, Medicine Bow Creek, Nebraska, August 7, 1856; W. S. Wood). Exactly like the adult male, but with the rufous darker, approaching to chestnut; spots beneath inclining to a tear-shaped form, and, though more numerous, are not so well defined as in the adult; also rufescent tinge beneath more general; blue of the wings with scarcely any spots; white terminal band of tail tinged with rufous. Sometimes the two or three outer feathers are clouded with ash, and possess indication of bars, formed of irregular black spots.

Young female (40,520, Fort Rice, Dacota; S. M. Rothhammer). Generally like the adult, but with rufous above darker, approaching ferruginous; the bars everywhere broader, and purer black; rufous vertical patch streaked centrally with black; spots beneath larger, darker, approaching reddish umber.

HAB. Continental North America (only), across to both coasts, and from Arctic regions to Isthmus of Panama; not in West Indies.

This form ranges over the whole of continental North America, from Panama northward into the British Provinces, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Throughout the whole of this extensive area the bird exhibits very little variation, in fact, none not of an almost individual character, consisting mainly in the varying amount of ashy-white and black on the lateral tail-feather, and also, to a less extent, in the depth of the ochraceous tint on the breast, and the abundance and size of the black spots on the sides or flanks. In the Gulf region of the United States it passes gradually into var. isabellinus through intermediate specimens. We have seen Florida skins (kindly lent to us by Mr. J. A. Allen) from Miami (♂, January 29, 1872), Cedar Keys (♂, February 28, 1871), and Florida Keys (♂, February 14, 1871). Of these, only the first (No. 14,491) deviates noticeably from the typical style; it inclines toward var. isabellinus in sparsity of black spots on flanks and restricted rufous on the crown, but in the pure light ash of the crown and wings, and faint ochraceous of the breast, it resembles more the var. sparverius. Wing, 6.50; tail, 4.70. The two other specimens measure as follows: No. 14,487, Florida Keys, wing, 6.90; tail, 5.00. No. 14,492, Cedar Keys, wing, 6.90; tail, 5.00. The former is peculiar in having some of the upper tail-coverts either partly or entirely ashy.

Mexican specimens represent the race in the greatest purity or exaggeration of its characteristic features, in pure and light bluish-ash of wings and crown, greatest extent of rufous on crown, etc. California specimens often exhibit what I have not noticed in eastern examples, though possibly occurring in them; that is, in adult males the cere and feet are of a deep orange-red—almost vermilion color.

LIST OF SPECIMENS EXAMINED.

National Museum, 104; Boston Society, 26; Philadelphia Academy, 7; Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 66; New York Museum, 7; Cab. G. N. Lawrence, 4; Cab. R. Ridgway, 4. Total, 218.

Measurements.

+----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+ |Sex.| Wing. | Tail. | Culmen. | Tarsus. |Middle Toe.|Specimens.| +----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+ | ♂ | 6.50–8.00| 4.50–5.70| .50–.00|1.25–1.55| .95–0.00| 117 | +----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+ | ♀ | 6.80–8.40| 4.90–5.80| .55–.55|1.40–1.45| .90–1.00| 95 | +----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+

Var. isabellinus, SWAINSON.

Falco isabellinus, SWAINSON, An. Menag. p. 281, 1838. Tinnunculus sparverius, var. isabellinus, RIDGWAY, P. A. N. S. Phil. Dec. 1870, p. 149. Tinnunculus dominicensis (not of GMEL.!), STRICKL. Orn. Syn. 1, 100, 1855 (in part only).

SP. CHAR. Adult male (3,841, Prairie Mer Rouge, La., June, 1853; “J. F.”). Much like var. sparverius, but considerably darker in colors; plumbeous, crown dark with no rufous on vertex, nor darker shaft-lines. Rufous above more purplish-castaneous; cinereous of wings much darker; neck, jugulum, breast, and sides deep soft ochraceous, spots very few, and restricted to the sides. Wing, 7.00; tail, 4.70; tarsus, 1.25; middle toe, .90; culmen, .50. Wing-formula, 2, 3–4, 1.

Adult female (58,339, Jacksonville, Fla., June 10, 1869; C. J. Maynard). Differing from the female of var. sparverius in much darker colors, the rufous inclining to castaneous; bars broader, more sharply defined, pure black. Head above pure dark plumbeous, conspicuously different from the fine light ash of var. sparverius; vertex with touches only of rufous; markings beneath narrower, and nearly pure black, upon a deeper ochraceous ground. Wing, 7.20; tail, 4.50; tarsus, 1.20; middle toe, .83; culmen, .42. Primaries, 2, 3–1, 4.