Part 22

Throat and breast, pale reddish white; other under parts, lighter, with rounded spots and transverse bands of black, and with a tinge of cinereous on the flanks and abdomen. Tail above, pale bluish cinereous, with transverse bars of brownish black, and narrowly tipped with white. Patch of black on the cheek, very large, and scarcely separated from the same colors of the back of the head and neck.

Dimensions. Total length, females (of skin) about 17 inches, wing 13 to 13½, tail 6 to 6¾ inches; males, total length 14½, wing 11½ to 12, tail 5½ to 6 inches.

Younger. Entire plumage above, dark brown; many feathers, especially on the rump, tipped with rufous; tail above, brown, with a tinge of ashy, and barred with rusty on the inner webs. Under plumage pale reddish ferruginous, paler on the throat, all the feathers with broad longitudinal stripes of black, and many, also, with irregular transverse stripes of the same color, which predominates on the flanks and under wing-coverts, and which are marked with reddish white bars and circular spots. Tibia, with transverse bars of brownish black.

Dimensions. Female (of skin), total length about 17 inches, wing 12, tail 6½ inches.

Hab. Bear creek, California, (Mr. E. M. Kern.) Coast of Lower California, (Dr. Heermann.) Chili, (Lieut. Gilliss.) Spec. in Mus. Acad. Philada., and Nat. Mus. Washington.

Obs. This bird, of which we have seen numerous specimens, appears to be distinct from Falco anatum. It is uniformly smaller than either that species or F. peregrinus, but resembles Indian or other Asiatic specimens of the latter strongly. The young differ from the young of the species just mentioned, especially in the deeper and different red color of the under parts of the body. In this character they more resemble Falco peregrinator of India, Falco puniceus of Africa, Falco melanogenys of Australia. It has also generally the cheeks as strongly marked with a black patch as the latter, and can, by that character, be distinguished from either F. anatum or F. peregrinus.

This species appears to inhabit the western portion of America as far south as Chili.

3. Falco polyagrus. Cassin, new species. The American Lanier Falcon.

General form robust; bill, rather short, very strong; tooth, prominent; wing, long, second and third quills longest, and nearly equal; tail, rather long. Female nearly adult. Narrow frontal band; line over the eye, cheeks and entire under parts, white; narrow stripe from the corner of the mouth, dark brown; some feathers on the breast and abdomen, with longitudinal stripes and spots of brown, which color forms a large spot on the flank, plumage on the sides also with spots of brown. Entire plumage of the upper parts, brown, many feathers with rufous edgings; paler on the rump; tail above, grayish brown, with transverse bars of white, and narrowly tipped with the same color. Quills, dark grayish brown, with numerous bars of white on their inner webs; under wing-coverts, dark brown, edge of wing at the shoulder and below, white, spotted with brown. The brown of the back extending somewhat on to the breast at the wing-joint. Bill, bluish horn color, under mandible yellow at its base. Large space around the eye, bare, with a narrow edging of brown on the first plumage encircling it.

Younger Female. Entire plumage brownish black, throat white, and many feathers on the under parts with edgings and circular spots of white; under wing-coverts, also, with circular spots of white; under tail-coverts with wide transverse stripes of white. Young Male? Frontal band nearly obsolete; entire upper parts, uniform brown, with narrow rufous stripes on the head; under parts, white, with a tinge of reddish yellow, and nearly every feather with a narrow longitudinal stripe of blackish brown; large spaces on the flanks brown. Tarsi and feet lead colored.

Dimensions. Female (of skin), total length about 20 inches, wing 14, tail 8 inches.

Hab. Sources of the Platte river, (Dr. Townsend.) California, (Dr. Heermann.) Puget’s Sound, (U. S. Ex. Exp. Vincennes.) Spec. in Mus. Acad. Philada., and in Nat. Mus. Washington.

Obs. Very similar, in the two first stages of plumage above described, to Falco jugger of India, (Gray’s Illustrations of Indian Zoology, II. pl. 26, and Jerdon’s Illustrations of Indian Ornithology, pl. 44,) but larger. We have, however, never seen the young of F. jugger in the plumage of the young of our species as described above, from Dr. Heermann’s Californian specimens. This is the first species of this group of Falcons (the Laniers and Juggers) yet discovered in America, and is especially remarkable on account of its near affinity to the Asiatic species.

II. GENUS HIEROFALCO. Cuvier, Reg. An. I. p. 312, (1817.)

Size, large. Bill, short, thick, distinctly toothed, and with a slight festoon; wings rather shorter than in Falco; tarsi and toes shorter, the former covered with small circular scales. Color of adult usually white. Contains several species inhabiting the northern regions of both continents, nearly all of which where regarded with great favor for the purposes of Falconry.

1. Hierofalco sacer. (Forster.) The American Gyr Falcon. Falco sacer. Forster, Phil. Trans. London, LXII. p. 423. (1772.) Falco fusca. Fabricius Fauna Grœnlandica, p. 56, (1780,) not Gmelin, (1788.) Falco cinereus. Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I. p. 267. (1788.) Falco grœnlandicus. Turton, Syst. Nat. I. p. 147. (1806.) Falco labradora. Audubon, B. of Am. p. 196, (name on plate pub. about 1834.) “Falco candicans. Gmelin.” Bonap. Cons. Av. p. 23. “Falco grœnlandicus. Turton,” Hancock in Ann. and Mag., Nat. Hist. II. p. 249. “Falco islandicus. Lath.” Aud. Orn. Biog. II. p. 552.

Edwards’ Birds, II. pl. 53, young. Aud. B. of Am. pl. 196, young, (but not pl. 366 which represents another species.) Schlegel, Traité de Fauconnerie, pl. (no number,) adult. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. II. pl. 10, (feathers.)

Form strong, and robust; second and third quills (in the young bird) longest and nearly equal. Adult, according to Hancock as cited above, “ground of the plumage pure white, upper parts elegantly marked with arrow shaped spots of a dark gray; under parts and head streaked with the same; wings reaching to within two inches of the end of the tail; second primary the longest.”

Young. Entire plumage, brown, tinged with cinereous on the upper parts. Throat, dull white; all the plumage of the under parts edged with and having circular spots of dull yellowish white, the rounded spots more apparent on the tibia and under tail-coverts. Quills, mottled with the same white on their inner webs; tail, with numerous (about thirteen) irregular bars of the same. “Bill and cere, pale blue; iris, brownish black. Feet, grayish blue; the under parts of the toes greenish yellow; claws dusky.” (Audubon.)

Hab. Northern America. Greenland, (Fabricius, Hancock,) Hudson’s Bay, (Richardson,) Labrador, (Audubon,) Louisville, Kentucky, (Mr. C. W. Webber.) Spec. in Mus. Nat. Hist. Soc. Charleston, S. C.

Obs. The Gyrfalcon is of very rare occurrence in the United States, though not unfrequent in the northern regions of this continent.

Mr. Hancock, whose opportunities were ample, fully demonstrates (as cited above) that the Falco grœnlandicus of Greenland, which is the present species, and the Falco islandicus of Iceland, are distinct, which appears to be assented to by all late writers. The bird, figured by Mr. Audubon as the adult of the species of which the young bird was obtained by him in Labrador, was an Iceland specimen, (Orn. Biog. IV. p. 476,) and therefore not correctly given as the American bird. We have never had the satisfaction of seeing the adult of this species; but for an opportunity of examining one of Mr. Audubon’s Labrador specimens, we are indebted to the Rev. John Bachman, D. D., of Charleston, S. C., who, with that disposition to advance the interests of Zoological Science which has always characterized him, most kindly forwarded it at our request.

Turton’s description above cited, is copied by him from Pennant’s Greenland Falcon, Arctic Zoology, I. p. 257.

III. GENUS HYPOTRIORCHIS. Boie Isis, p. 976. (1826.)

DENDROFALCO. Gray list, p. 3. (1840.)

Size small, tarsus lengthened and rather slender. In all other characters much like typical Falco. Toes long, slender and furnished with sharp, curved claws. This genus includes about ten or twelve small species found in various parts of the world, and for the greater part dark colored, like the species of typical Falco.

1. Hypotriorchis columbarius. (Linn.) The Pigeon Hawk. Falco columbarius. Linn. Syst. Nat. I. p. 128. (1766.) Falco intermixtus. Daudin, Traité d’Orn. II. p. 141. (1800.) Falco temerarius. Aud. B. of Am. I. p. 381. (1831, plate pub. 1829) “Falco æsalon. Temm.” Rich. and Sw. Faun. Bor. Am. Birds, p. 37.

Cat. Car. pl. 3. Vieill. Ois. d’Am. Sept. pl. 11. Wils. Am. Orn. II. pl. 15, fig. 3. Faun. Bor. Am. Birds, pl. 25. Aud. B. of Am. pl. 75, 92. Oct. ed. I. pl. 21. De Kay, Nat. Hist. N. Y. pl. 4, fig. 9.