APLOMADO FALCON 97 



bright browns. Some eggs are thickly sprinkled with reddish-brown 

 spots and blotches of various sizes; and others are sparsely spotted 

 with paler browns, showing the ground color. To my mind they look 

 like small eggs of the prairie falcon, showing some similar variations. 

 The measurements of 56 eggs average 44.5 by 34.5 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 48 by 34.7, 47.5 by 36.2, 40 by 

 32.9, and 44.3 by 31.1 millimeters. 



Plumages. — I have never seen the downy young or any nestlings of 

 this falcon. In the immature plumage of the first year, the color 

 pattern is similar to that of the adult, but the colors are quite different. 

 The upper parts are "bone brown" to "sepia", with narrow buff 

 edgings ; the tail has eight or nine narrow, broken bars, or spots of dull 

 white; the dark areas on the under parts are "bone brown" when 

 fresh, fading later to "warm sepia" or "bister"; the anterior under 

 parts are "cream-buff" to "cinnamon-buff" when fresh, heavily 

 streaked on the breast with "bone brown", but the chin and throat 

 are unmarked; the belly, between the dark areas, and the tibiae are 

 "pinkish cinnamon" to "cinnamon"; these light-colored areas fade out 

 to pale buff or nearly white, and the narrow edgings on the mantle 

 wear away; the lining of the wings is black. 



There is apparently an intermediate, perhaps a second-year, plumage 

 in which the upper parts are more plumbeous than in the young bird 

 but browner than in the adult; the feathers of the dark areas below 

 are no longer immaculate, as in the young bird, but have small white 

 spots along their edges; the tail is as in the young bird, the lining of 

 the wings is still black, and the breast is still heavily streaked with 

 black. This may be merely a transition plumage. 



In the fully adult plumage, the upper parts are "dark plumbeous" 

 to "plumbeous", darkest on the crown; the upper tail coverts are 

 tipped with white; the tail is dark slate, broadly tipped white, and 

 with five to seven white bands; the chin is white, shading to "cinna- 

 mon-buff" on the breast and immaculate; the lower breast and flanks 

 are black, the feathers narrowly tipped with white; and the lining of the 

 wing is white, barred with dusky. 



Food. — Bendire (1892) says that "their food consists of small rep- 

 tiles, mice and other rodents, grasshoppers and insects of various 

 kinds, and occasionally a bird." Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1928) 

 adds dragonflies and seeds to the list. Col. A. J. Grayson (Lawrence, 

 1874) has seen it hunting ground doves, quail, and other birds. 

 Maj. Allan Brooks (1933) writes: "This graceful falcon is not much in 

 evidence until a prairie fire is started on the wide coastal plain [near 

 Brownsville, Tex.], when they quickly arrive, sweeping gracefully 

 backwards and forwards in front of the advancing flames and deftly 

 capturing the large green locusts that are driven to flight. These are 

 eaten on the wing, the falcon rising in the air as it picks its prey to 



