PLANTS THAT OCCUR IN BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES 803 



this group in other countries besides the United States. 



In the case of the Bindweed, the flowers are of a ghs- 

 tening white, and for this reason the plant may be recog- 

 nized at a long distance. It often climbs and masses 

 upon other plants, cutting off the sunlight from the 

 latter. Then, again, we may find it in the most shady 

 corner of some deep wood, and the example here shown 

 flourished in such a place, being photographed in situ 

 with no little difficulty. Finally, we may find bindweed 

 growing in great masses in an open field, with hundreds 

 of its lovely, immaculate flowers glistening in the bright 

 sunlight. Sometimes these blossoms are tinged with 

 pink, and other species possess still other characters. The 

 one here shown is the common Hedge Bindweed (C 

 sepium) ; it may become ten or twelve feet long, 

 while other species, such 

 as Trailing Bindweed (C. 

 s. repens), the Small Bind- 

 weed (C. arvensis), and 

 others, rarely exceed a yard 

 or less in length. Most of 

 the larger species of bees 

 are great patronizers of the 

 representatives of this fam- 

 ily of plants. It is by no 

 means an unusual sight to 

 see a Dodder vine twisting 

 itself all over a Hedge 

 Bindweed, exhausting its 

 life juices — and to think 

 that both are members of 

 the same family! It might 

 well be called a kind of 

 floral fratricide. 



Our Cypress Vine (Ipo- 

 moea qiiamoclit), another 

 convolvuline species, al- 

 ready referred to above, 

 with its pretty little scarlet 

 flowers, came from Tropi- 

 cal America, and now 

 flourishes in many places 

 in the South. We fre- 

 quently see it growing over 

 garden fences and similar 

 places. Its flowers are said 

 to be white in the case of 

 some plants, and there are 

 other species and subspe- 

 cies (varieties) of it. 



We have many interesting plants in the Lobelia family, 

 several of which have already been figured and described 

 in previous issues of American Forestry. An average 

 example of the Great Lobelia is here reproduced in 

 Figure 7; and this is a plant which, in favored spots, 

 may occur in great nurnbers, producing, when in full 

 flower, a blaze of splendid sky-blue, which may be 

 seen a long distance off. Sometimes its flowers 

 are pure white ; and, whatever their color may be, they 



THIS LOVELY WHITE FLOWER IS OF THE VINE KNOWN AS 

 HEDGE BINDWEED, WHICH, IN THE SOUTH, MAY BLOOM 

 UNTIL VERY LATE IN THE SEASON 



Fig. S^Bindweeds are close relatives of the Morning Glories and Cypress 



Vines; 

 family, 



are usually found growing in moist or wet places. 

 When our Ruby-throated Humming-bird of the East 

 was more plentiful than it now is, it was frequently seen 

 visiting these flowers of the Great Lobelia, as their tube- 

 shaped corollas constituted the very style of flowers that 

 these little gems of the bird-world fully appreciated. The 

 cross-fertilization of the Lobelia is, however, principally 

 accomplished through the agency of bees of various 

 species and certain large flies. 



THE AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK 



BY MAJOR R. W. SHUFELDT 



(Photograph by the Author) 



W7E have a splendid array of falcons and hawks and 



'^' their near allies in the bird fauna of this country, 



and of all these many species our Sparrow Hawk is not 



only the smallest but de- 

 cidedly the handsomest in 

 plumage. Upwards of a 

 dozen vernacular names 

 have been bestowed upon it 

 in different parts of the 

 United States, while its 

 scientific name, given it by 

 Linnaeus generations ago, 

 Falco sparverius, is the one 

 by which every ornitholo- 

 gist knows it the world over. 

 In length, the Sparrow 

 Hawk measures less than 

 a foot, and the plumage 

 color-pattern is different in 

 the two sexes. Both are 

 very handsome, though the 

 male is rather the more 

 striking in this respect. An 

 adult male, in full breed- 

 ing-feather, has the top of 

 the head of a clear ashy 

 blue, all to a central patch, 

 which latter is a bright 

 chestnut. The back of the 

 neck and the sides are of 

 a dingy pale yellow, with 

 an ashy area on the former. 

 The entire back and shoul- 

 der is of a clear chestnut 

 rufous, transversely barred 

 with black. Wing-coverts 

 and secondary wing-feath^ 

 ers ashy blue like the crown, 

 the feathers each dotted with black ; the flight-feathers 

 are dusky, margined with yellowish white. The rufous- 

 colored tail is tipped with white, and embellished with a 

 subterminal bar of black. There are markings of black 

 on the side of the head and nape. Breast, and to a degree 

 below it, pale rufous or rusty, and then whitish to the 

 tail. All of this area is spotted with black, beginning 

 above, with fine dots on each feather, and ending below 

 with much larger ones. Tail-coverts beneath, pure 



they are all grouped in the Convolvulaceae or the Convolvulus 



