16 NORTH AMERICAN OOLOGY. TART I. 



TINNUSCULUS SPARVERIUS. 



Falco sparverius, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 128. 



" WILS. Am. Orn. II, 1810, pi. xvi, fig. 1, and IV, pi. xxxii, fig. 2. 



BONAP. Syn. 1828, p. 27. 



" KICK. & SWAINS. F. B. A. II, 1831, 31. 



NUTTALL, Manual, I, 1832, 58. 

 AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1835, 246 ; V, 370, pi. cxlii. 

 " Syn. 1839, p. 17. 

 " Birds of Am. I, 1840, 90, pi. xxii. 

 DE KAY, Nat. Hist. New York, I, 1844, 16, pi. vii, fig. 16. 

 Falco dominice.nsis, GM. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 285. 

 Cerchneis sparverius, BONAP. Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, p. 5. 

 Falco graciJis, Sw. Cab. Cyc. 1838, p. 281. 

 Falco cinnamominus, Sw. Cab. Cyc. 1838, p. 281. 

 Falco isabellinus, " " " " " 



Tinnunculus sparrcrius, CASSIN, Syn. N. A. Birds (Illust. Birds of Cal.), 1854, p. 92. 



" " Zoology of U. S. Naval Astronomical Expedition, II, 1855, 176. 



VULG. The Sparrow-Hawk. Little Rusty-Crowned Falcon. Little Falcon. Emcrillon de 

 St. Domingue. Little. Hawk. Emcrillon de Cayenne. 



THIS species is one of the most widely distributed of North American birds, hav- 

 ing been met with from latitude 50 north to the most extreme southern point of 

 South America. Captain King found it at Point Famine in the Straits of Magellan. 

 Sir John Richardson speaks of it as abundant on the banks of the Saskatchewan, in 

 the neighborhood of the Carlton House. Darwin obtained it in Patagonia and 

 Peru. Maclcay, Lembeye, De Sagra, and Gundlach give it as a Cuban bird, the last 

 of whom informs me that it breeds there. Mr. Pease obtained it in Mexico, Lieu- 

 tenant Gilliss in Chile; Dr. Gambel found it abundant throughout California, as also 

 did Mr. Audubon on the Yellowstone, in the Northwest Territory (now Nebraska). 

 This Hawk probably breeds throughout North America, from Hudson's Bay to Mex- 

 ico, and from Maine to California, though it is rare in the New England States. It 

 constructs no nest, but makes use of hollow trees, the deserted hole of a woodpecker, 

 or even an old crow's-nest. Its eggs are usually as many as five in number, and 

 Mr. Audubon once even met with seven in a single nest. The ground of the eggs 

 is usually a dark cream-color or a light buff. In their markings they vary con- 

 siderably. Five from a nest in Maryland were covered throughout the entire sur- 

 face with small blotches and dottings of a light brown, at times confluent, and, 

 except in a single instance, not more freqiient at the larger end than the smaller. 

 Others, the contents of a nest obtained by Mr. Audnbon in the Northwest Territory, 

 had a ground color of a light buff, nearly unspotted, except at the larger end, with 

 only a few large blotches and splashes of a deep chocolate. In others, interspersed 

 with the light-brown markings are a few of a much deeper shade. In some, the 

 eggs are covered with fine markings of buff, nearly uniform in size and color ; and 

 others again are marked with lines and bolder dashes of brown, of a distinctly 

 reddish shade, over their entire surface, and often so thickly as nearly to con- 



