462 Descriptions and Habits of 



dried skin, do not agree exactly with mine. I did not measure 

 any mah so short as 8 inches, as given by Gould ; the shortest 

 was 8g inches ; and I measured some of as much as 8 1 inches 

 in length. 



The female is from 8 to 8| inches long; tarsus, 1 J- inches 

 long; middle toe, If inches; tail, 2^ to 2f inches, consists 

 of 12 feathers, rounded; bill, i^ of an inch, nearly black; 

 top of head, back of neck, back, rump, upper tail coverts, 

 dark brown, with buff, reddish brown, and black, intermixed; 

 edges of wing coverts, very light buff, almost white ; throat, 

 chin, line extending across the forehead, and between the 

 bill and eyes to cheek, line over eyes, along superciliary 

 ridges to nape, deep buff or yellowish brown ; feathers of 

 breast, flanks, and belly, not fringed with black, as in the 

 male, but having light reddish color at the part next the quill, 

 then a pointed mark of very dark brown, on some feathers 

 almost black, then a large spot of very light bufl', on some 

 featliers white, and then a slight tip of dark brown on mar- 

 gin. The light spots on the breast are smaller than those 

 on the abdomen. There are large spots of reddish and dark 

 brown on flank feathers ; under tail coverts, nearly white, 

 with a lanceolate spot of dark brown or black along the mid- 

 dle of each ; legs, light flesh-colored ; primaries ash brown, 

 5 and 4 longest ; eyes of both male and female, hazel. 



FALCO PERCONTATOR. Calling Falcon. 



Of this new and beautiful bird, I had the opportunity of 

 observing only one pair, which I procured and brought home 

 with me, and whicli were the only individuals seen by me 

 while in Yucatan. I was one day standing, gun in hand, at 

 the edge of the g-reat senote, at Chichen Itza, awaiting the 

 arrival of my companions, in order to take a bath, the place 

 where I stood being about one hundred feet below the surface 

 of the around, and shaded from the vertical sun by a shelf of 

 rock, with an overhanging fringe of shrubs and vines, which 

 hung so low that 1 could only see to about six feet above the 

 surface of the water. 1 had been listening to an occasional 



