FALCONID^E — THE HAWKS — FALCO. 401 



and white spots ; quills and tail m/arly black ; tail unspottcil, or with aliout f'uur white 

 bands. Female like the young in color. 



Length of female, 12.00 to U.OO ; extent, 27.00 to 28.00 ; wing, 8.00 to 9.00; tail, 5.00 

 to 6 00. Male, 10.00 to 12.00 ; wing, 7.00 to 8.00. Iris brown ; bill bluish-black ; cere and 

 feet yellow or greenish in the young. 



Huh. Most of North and South America. 



This well-known little falcon ranges over the whole State in tlie colder 

 months, but I have not observed it, even in the high Coast Eange, in sum- 

 mer, though some probably remain in the cooler regions in the breeding- 

 season. I shot a fine specimen in winter at Fort Mojave, which differed 

 from the usual form only in being of a very pale, almost asliy color ; Ijut 

 this was doubtless the effect of the dry hot climate of the interior, which 

 affects the plumage of many Ijirds in the same way. 



Though small, the pigeon-hawk has all the fierceness and courage of a 

 true falcon, and captures Ijird.s fully as large as itself It, however, chiefly 

 follows the flocks of gregarious birds, such as black-birds, do^'es, etc., ;ind 

 preys much on mice, gophers, and squirrels. I have not heard of its at- 

 tacking domestic poultry, and those farmers who shoot every " chicken- 

 hawk " that comes around the house would do well to observe them more 

 closely, and will discover that these small species are not the young of the 

 larger ones, and should rather be encouraged than destroyed. 



Audubon found a nest in Labrador on June 1st, built in a low fir-tree, 

 ten or twelve feet from the ground, composed of sticks, slightly lined with 

 moss and feathers. The eggs were five, 1.75 by 1.25 inches, elongated. 

 Their ground color was dull yellowish-bro\\Ti, with irregiilar thickly clouded 

 blotches of dull dark reddish-ljrown. (Oct. cd. I. 89.) 



Falco femoralis, Temminck. 

 THE ARIZONA HAWK. 



Fako femoralis, Temminck, PI. Col. I. liv. 21. — Cassin, Baird, Birds N. Amer. 1858, 11 ; 



pi. i. — Dkesser, Ibis, 1865, 333. — Coues, Pr. A. N. Sc. 18C6, 42. 

 Falco thoracicus, (III.) Liciit. Verz. 1823, 62. 



Sp. Cn.in. Head above, and entire upper parts light cinereous ; darker, and with 

 transverse bars of white on the upper tail coverts ; front and line over the eye to the back 

 of the neck white, tinged with orange on tlie latter ; a wide band under and behind the 

 eye, and another short band running downwards from the base of the under mandible, 

 dark cinereous. Throat and breast very pale yellowisli-white ; a wide band across tlie 

 body beneath, black, with narrow transverse stripes of white ; abdomen, tiljia", and under 

 tail coverts light rufous. Under wing coverts pale yellowish-white, spotted with black; 



