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BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



American species) by two longitudinal series of large, alternating 

 transverse scutella except on lower portion where there is a single 

 frontal series, the planta tarsi covered with small hexagonal scales, or 

 (in F. tinnunculus and F. rupicolus) the acrotarsium with a single 

 series of large scutella on inner side only, the outer side covered with 

 small hexagonal scales similar to those on planta tarsi, but somewhat 

 larger; outer toe, without claw, extending to considerably beyond 

 penultimate articulation of middle toe, the shorter inner toe extending 

 slightly beyond (in F. tinnunculus), the lateral toes relatively much 

 longer in F. rupicolus, and slightly shorter in F. sparverius, in which 

 the outer toe extends but little beyond the articulation mentioned, 

 the inner toe still less beyond it; hallux, without claw, less than one- 

 third as long as tarsus, its claw shorter than the digit. 



Plumage and coloration. — Plumage compact but very soft, the pri- 

 maries and rectrices not rigid, the former with obtuse tips; orbital 

 region bare. Coloration of sexes conspicuously different, but young 

 not distinctly different from adults. 



Range. — Nearly cosm^opolitan, but absent from Polynesia, New 

 Zealand, and Galapagos Archipelago. (Eleven or 12 species, with 

 many subspecies.) 





Figure 51. — Falco (Tinnunculus) sparverius. 



FALCO TINNUNCULUS TINNUNCULUS Linnaeus 



European Kestrel 



Adult male. — Forehead cartridge buff to pale ivory yellow; crown, 

 occiput, nape, and back of neck neutral gray to deep neutral gray, 

 sometimes washed with rufescent or huffy, each feather with a narrow 

 black shaft streak; scapulars, interscapulars, upper back, lesser and 

 median upper wing coverts and greater upper secondary coverts 



