54 Dr. A, Hall on the Mammals and Birds 



BIRDS. 

 Fam. Accipitres. — Genus Falco. 



Gen. char. Beak more or less hooked, furnished with a cere which 

 is more or less hairy, and usually coloured ; mandibles frequently 

 dentated ; nostrils lateral, rounded or oval, open, and surrounded 

 by the cere ; tarsus feathered or naked, in the latter event always 

 scaly ; toes four — 3 before, and 1 behind ; anterior middle one 

 longest, and the exterior usually connecterl with it by a membrane 

 as far as the first joint ; talons sharp, more or less curved and 

 retractile ; tail of 12 feathers ; wings long. 

 Suh- gen. Falco. 



Sub gen. char. Beak short, incurved ; upper mandible with 

 one or two teeth ; legs robust ; tarsi short, toes long ; talons 

 sharp and hooked ; 1st and 3rd primaries subequal, 2nd longest. 

 The 1st and 2nd have an abrupt emargination of their inner web 

 towards their extremities. 



F. sparverius. Sparrow hawk. 



Falco (^Tinnunculus) sparverius. Linnseus and Baird! 



v.s.p. Cere yellow ; legs and feet yellow ; bill bluish black : 

 irides hazel ; eggs 4 to 5, brownish yellow, mottled brown. Male 

 plumage, dorsal aspect. — A black streak from each angle of the 

 mandibles ; crown of head reddish brown, surrounded by a coro- 

 net of ashy bine; auriculars white^ a narrow white line forms the 

 base of the frontlet, and is continued over the eye ; the back and 

 Dearly the whole tail, light reddish brown ; interscapular region 

 dotted with black. Ventral aspect. — Chin, throat, breast, belly, 

 and vent dirty white, with oval black spots across the body, and 

 continued thence to the wings as fnr as the primaries ; seconda- 

 ries ash blue above, with black oval spots ; primaries black, with 

 their inner webs barred with white ; inferiorly the inner webs of 

 both are barred with faint black lines on a white ground, the 

 outer webs being wholly black. The outer lateral tail feather 

 barred with black and white, the bars continued to the outer 

 web of the 2nd ; all the other tail feathers of the dorsal tint ; a 

 broad black bar terminates the reddish brown, which is itself 

 terminated, except in the two central feathers, by a white tip. 

 The same distribution of colour marks the under surface of the 

 tail, only fainter. Length from the bill to the extremity of the 

 tail fourteen inches ; alar expanse twenty-six inches. The female 

 presents the same characters about the head as the male. On the 



