] 62 NORTH AMKKICAN BIRDS. 



B. Back rufous only in tlio 9- Lower parts deep ferruginous-rufous; front 



and auriculars dusky. 



3. T. sparveroides.' ^. Aliove, except the tail, entirely dark plum- 

 beous, with a blackish nuchal collar; primaries and edges and sub- 

 terminal portion of tail-feathers, black. Beneath deep lufous (like the 

 back of sparverius and leucophrys), with a wash of plumbeous across 



narrower and less numerous ; the nape or upper part of back, and rum]), being almost immaculate. 

 Tail with ten black bars, these .scarcely touching the shaft ; the last is about .36 wide, the others 

 about .16 ; tip of tail scarcely paler than base ; lateral feather with outer web edged broadly with 

 paler or oehraceous white, rufous ne.\t the shaft, immaculate ; inner web with only three or four 

 very narro\v bars on terminal half Head as in the male, but vertex considerably tinged with ru- 

 fous. Whole lower parts, ineluiling frontal and lateral regions of the head, I'ontinuous pure 

 white ; breast with a very faint yellowish tinge ; .side of the breast and sides with a few scattered 

 minute elliptical longitudinal flakes of rusty, — more black on the shaft. Whole under surface 

 of the wing white, as in the male. Wing-formula, 2, 3-4, 1. Wing, 7.00 ; tail, 4.70; tarsus, 

 1.40 ; middle toe, .90 ; culmen, .51. A Cuban female belonging to Mr. Lawrence is exactly 

 similar. One in the S. L Collection, from Hayti (42,420, Port au Prince, June 5, 1S60 ; A. C. 

 Younglove), differs only in less purely black bars, and in utter absence of the mustache. A male 

 from the same locality (43,418) is like it in the last respect. 



Juv. 9 (34,235, Remedies, Cuba, December, 1864; N. H. Bishop). Similar to the adult 

 described, but .jugiilum tinged with soft pinkish-rufous, and the black bars on upper parts — es- 

 pecially on wings — with a iihunbeous Ciist. 



In regard to this form, we must either consider that it is a distinct species, or assume that it is 

 a light phase of a Cuban species, of which T. sparveroides may be the dark or rufescent form ; 

 knowing, as we do, that the differences between kucophrys and sparveroides depend on neither 

 sex, age, nor season, then the only way to account for the two phases is to consider that the 

 Cuban bird (if we denj' it the rank of a species) presents a very peculiar example of dimor- 

 phism. I have never yet seen a specimen which was not decidedly one or the other. An adult 

 male from Cuba is immaculate white beneath, the breast very strongly tinged with deep rufous, 

 the mustache wholly absent. Two females have narrow brown streaks on the breast, the mus- 

 tache nearly obsolete ; the dusky bars on primaries and tail much narrower. 



List of Specimeiu examined. — Nat. Mils., 7 ; Bost. Soc, 3 ; Philad. Acad., 2 ; G. X. Law- 

 rence, 4. Total, 16. 



Measurements. — g. Wing, 6.80- 7.30 ; tail, 4.90-5.20 ; culmen, .45 ; tarsus, 1.45 ; middle 

 toe, .90; specimens, 4. 9. ^^'"gi 7.10-7.60; tail, 4.90-5.60; culmen, .50-. 52; tarsus, 

 1.40 ; middle toe, .91 ; specimens, 6. 



' Falcn (Tinnunculus) sparveroides. Fnko sparreroides. Vigors, Zobl. Jouni. Ill, 436, 1827; 

 Isis, 1830, p. 1166. — D'Ort). (R. de la S;igra), Hist. Cuba, 1840, p. 30, pi. i. Tinnunculus 

 sparveroides. Gray, Gen. B. fol. sp. 12, 1844. — Fraser, Zobh Typ. pi. xxx. — Bonap. Consp. 

 Av. p. 27. — Strickl. Orn. Syn. 1, 100, 1855.— Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1860, p. 1 (in part 

 dark specimens). — Ridgivay, P. A. N. S. Phil. Dec. 1870, 149. Tinnunculus dominicensis 

 (not of Gmel.?), Gray, Hand List, I, 24, 1869. — Gr.NnLAcn, Repert. Cuba, I, 225, 1865. 

 IHiipotriorckis ferruginous, S.wss. Rev. et Mag. Zobl. 1859, p. 117, pi. iii. 



Hab. Cuba (only ?). 



Adidt g (31,985, Cuba ; J. Ackhurst). Above, continuously dark plumbeous, from bill to 

 the tail, the shafts of the feathers black (the.se streaks most noticeable on the head above), the 

 larger scapulars and interscapulars darker centrally, forming indistinct or obscure spots ; this 

 plumbeous covers the whole neck laterally, and the middle area of the ear-coverts. An obsolete 

 "mustache" running from the lores downward across the cheeks, a spot across ends of the car- 

 coverts connected with that on the nec^k, and obsolete though continuous collar round the nape, 

 inclining to black. Primaries wholly black, basal third of secondaries the same. (No spots on 

 wings.) Tail deep chestnut, shaft.s of feathers black ; torminal band dull .slate ; subterminal 

 black zone about .60 of an inch in width, but instead of running sharply across, as in all the 

 varieties of sparverius and in Uucophry.f, the black runs along the edge of each feather, bor- 



