BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 



623 



FALCO MEXICANUS Schlegel 



Pkairie Falcon 



Adult (sexes alike) .—Forehead white to cream buff, the feathers 

 with very fine blackish shafts; crown, occiput, nape, interscapulars, 

 back, rump, scapulars, and upper wing coverts Saccardo's umber to 

 sepia, the feathers of the top of the head with distinct, the others 

 with indistinct, blacldsh shafts, the feathers of the back, rump, and 

 the upper wing coverts edged %vith tawny-ohve and incompletely 

 barred (the bars on the outer edges of both webs but not reaching the 

 shafts) with avellaneous to wood brown, the feathers of the nape and 



Figure 45. — Falco (Gennaia) mexicanus. 



the anterior interscapulars with complete bars which are covered by 

 ihe> overlapping feathers; the feathers of the posterior edge of the 

 occiput pale buffy white to cartridge buff, with blackish shafts and 

 tawny-olive tips, forming a fairly distinct band of whitish connecting 

 on either side with a pale buffy white superciliary stripe; some of the 

 feathers of the crown with whitish instead of tawny-olive margins; 

 upper wing coverts, scapulars and back feathers with a slight cin- 

 ereous drab cast (this seems to be slightly more pronounced in females 

 than in males), which increases in intensity posteriorly; remiges dull 

 sepia washed with cinereous or hoary, slightly darker subterminally 

 and narrowly tipped with dull avellaneous, the inner webs whitish 

 externally except for a broad sepia tip (about 40 mm. in length on the 

 outer primaries) this pale area crossed by 3 to 5 (on the secondaries) 



