254 HISTORY OF THE 



Their nests are placed on the ground, in the grass, sometimes 

 under low bushes, and usually on the bottom prairie lands; a 

 slight structure, made usually of grasses; sometimes, on boggy 

 grounds, with a foundation of sticks and weeds. Eggs four to 

 six, 1.86x1.42; bluish white, generally unspotted, but occasion- 

 ally with faint to distinct spots and blotches of purplish brown; 

 in form, broadly oval. 



. Genus ACCIPITER Bkisson. 

 Face not encircled by a ruff. Tail decidedly more than two-thirds as long as 

 wing. Depth of bill at base not decidedly less than chord of culmen; middle 

 toe equal to or longer than naked portion of tarsus in front; lores denselj' 

 feathered. {Ride/way.) 



Subgenus ACCIPITER. 

 Bare portion of tarsus in front longer than middle toe; wing less than 12.00. 

 {Ritlf/ira//.) 



Accipiter velox (Wils.). 



SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. 

 PLATE XV. 



Winter sojourner; rare; in migration, common. Probably 

 occasionally breed in the State. 



B. 17. E. 432. C. 494. G. 201, 116. U. 332. 



Habitat. Nearly the whole of North America; south in win- 

 ter to Costa Rica, The birds have been found breeding as far 

 south as Florida and southern Texas, but they breed chiefly in 

 the northern United States and northward. 



Sp. Chak. "■Adult male: Above, deep plumbeous, this covering head above, 

 nape, back, scapulars, wings, rump and upper tail coverts; uniform throughout, 

 scarcely perceptibly darker anteriorly. Primaries and tail somewhat lighter 

 and more brownish. The latter crossed by four sharply-defined bands of brown- 

 ish black, the last of which is subterminal, and broader than the rest, the first 

 concealed by the upper coverts; tip passing very narrowly (or scarcely percep- 

 tibly) into whitish terminally. Occipital feathers snowy white beneath the sur- 

 face; entirely concealed, however. Scapulars also with concealed, very large, 

 roundish spots of pure white. Under side of primaries pale slate, becoming 

 white toward bases, crossed by quadrate spots of blackish, of which there are 

 seven ( besides the terminal dark space) on the longest. Lores, cheeks, ear cov- 

 erts, chin, throat, and lower parts in general, pure white; chin, throat and 

 cheeks with fine, rather sparse, blackish shaft streaks; ear coverts with a pale 

 rufous wash. Jugulum, breast, abdomen, sides, flanks and tibiae with numerous 

 transverse broad bars of delicate vinaceous rufous, the bars medially somewhat 

 transversely cordate, and rather narrower than the white bars; laterally the 

 pinkish rufous prevails, the bars being connected broadly along the shafts; tlbife 



