RAPTORES FALCONIDAE F. COMMUNIS VAR. ANATUM. 411 



on and survey the adjoining country. Their method of alighting on these 

 was peculiar. They flew low down, and when just at the foot of the pole 

 suddenly closed the wings and shot up to the top, the impetus gained in 

 flight being sufficient to propel them upward to the desired height. 



Of this falcon, a single male in adult plumage was shot near Denver, 

 Colo. The specimen is of interest, as being the third only known to have 

 been taken in this plumage. Mr. Ridgway has kindly compared this with 

 the others in the Smithsonian collection, and finds it to present the follow- 

 ing differences : The transverse bars of the upper surface are more sharply 

 defined, and are pale earth-brown or dull ochraceous, instead of ashy-drab, 

 and are very distinct on the rump instead of being entirely obsolete. The 

 upper parts lack entirely any bluish tinge, which is so strongly marked on the 

 other two specimens. The markings on the flanks are in the form of large 

 transverse spots of dark vandyke-brown, with intervening rounded spots of 

 pale reddish-drab. Cere, legs, and feet light-yellow. 



FALCO COMMUNIS, Gniel., var. ANATUM, Boa. 



Duck Hawk. 



Falco anatum, BON., Eur. & N. Am. Birds, 1838, 4. BD., Birds N. A., 1858, 7. 

 HAYD., Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., xii, 1862, 152. COOPER, Birds Cal., i, 1870, 

 457. SNOW, Birds Kan., 1872, 3. 



Falco communis var. anatum, RIDG., Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1873, 45. BD., BREW., 

 & RIDG.. N. A. Birds, 1874, iii, 132. RIDG. apud ALLEN, Proc. Bost. Soc. 

 Nat. Hist., Jnue, 1874, IS, 34. HENSHAW, An. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., xi, 

 1874, 9. 



Falco nigriceps, HENRY, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. PLila., 1859, 105 (New Mexico). 

 COOP. & SUCKL., P. R. R. Rep., xii, pt. ii, I860, 142, pi. xi. COOPER, Birds 

 Cal., i, 1870, 456. 



Falco peregrimis, WOODH., Sitgreave's Exp. Zuiii & Col. Riv., 1854, 61. ALLEN, Bui. 

 Mus. Comp. Zool., 1872, 180 (Middle Kansas; South Park; plains of Wyo- 

 ming; Ogdeu, Utah). 



