124 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the commonest hawk. Its bright colors and sprightly manners made 

 it one of the attractive features of the region. It could be easily- 

 recognized by its manner of flight, when too far away to see its unique 

 color pattern or hear its characteristic notes. It seemed to differ in 

 no way from its eastern relative, as to its behavior. I once saw one 

 attack and drive away a red-tailed hawk from its nesting site. 



FALCO SPARVERIUS PENINSULAKIS Mcarns 

 SAN LUCAS SPARROW HAWK 



HABITS 



In describing and naming this race, which is known only from 

 southern Lower California, Dr. Edgar A. Mearns (1892) states that 

 the male is similar to the male of the desert sparrow hawk, "but 

 smaller, with larger, stouter bill, with less black barring on back and 

 scapulars, and scarcely any black spots on the wing-coverts; under 

 side of wing mostly white, the quills being merely serrated with black 

 next to shaft on inner webs; under parts suffused with yellow; very 

 slightly spotted on the sides." And the female is also similar to the 

 female deserticolus, "but with a more rufous shade on tail; under parts 

 more yellowish; 'iris yellow,' instead of hazel." 



Very little seems to be known about the distribution, and much less 

 about the habits of the San Lucas sparrow hawk. William Brewster 

 (1902) says: "This small, light-colored form of the Sparrow Hawk is 

 of common occurrence in the Cape Region in autumn and winter, but 

 it does not appear to breed there at all numerously, for Mr. Frazar 

 met with it in summer only at San Jose del Rancho where he notes it as 

 'very rare'. It is believed to be confined to Lower California, but we 

 have no definite knowledge as to just how far up the Peninsula its 

 distribution extends." 



Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1928b), in his latest work on the birds of this 

 region, records it as a "common resident in the Cape district and 

 thence northward to about 28° latitude. * * * Intergradation 

 between the races phalaena and peninsularis probably takes place 

 between latitudes 28° and 30°." He says further: "Since the above 

 was written, Mr. C. C. Lamb has sent in to this Museum three 

 diminutive Sparrow Hawks obtained October 14, 1927, on the Colorado 

 River twenty miles south of Pilot Knob, January 21, 1928, on the 

 Alamo River twenty miles southwest of Pilot Knob, and February 4, 

 1928, five miles east of Cerro Prieto. I am unable to distinguish 

 these from Cape-district peninsularis. Whether northward vagrants 

 of that race, or representatives of a resident 'colony' of that race on 

 the Colorado Desert, or curiously dwarfed individual variants of 

 phalaena, is not now demonstrable." 



