SPARROW HAWK. 349 



parts is slate blue, or deep greyish-blue, with darker shaft- 

 lines. The feathers on the nape are white at the base, and on 

 each of the scapulars are two broad bands of the same colour. 

 The outer primaries are dusky greyish-brown, and all the 

 quills have the inner web marked with dusky bands, between 

 which the inner margins are greyish-white. The tail is deep 

 grey, with six broad bands of blackish-brown on the lateral 

 and four on the middle tail-feathers, the last band broader and 

 more distinct, and the tips greyish-white. The upper part of 

 the cheeks is bluish-grey, the rest and the sides of the neck 

 yellowish-red, the throat reddish-white. The fore part of the 

 neck, the breast, sides, abdomen, and tibiae, are transversely 

 barred with reddish- white and yellowish-red, the latter colour 

 prevailing on the breast and sides ; each feather having five 

 bands of white, and an equal number of pale red and dusky. 

 The coloured bands become fainter on the hind parts, and gra- 

 dually disappear on the abdomen^ some of the feathers of which, 

 as well as the lower tail-coverts, are white. The tarsal fea- 

 thers are light red. The lower wing-coverts reddish- white 

 barred with dusky. The dark bars of the wings and tail are 

 more conspicuous on their lower surface. 



Length to end of tail 13 inches, to end of wings 11 ; extent 

 of wings 23 ; wing from flexure 8 ; tail 6^ ; bill along the 

 ridge j%, along the edge of lower mandible j% ; tarsus 2j ; 

 first toe i\, its claw ~'^ ; second toe ^%, its claw i% ; third 

 toe lj%, its claw y| ; fourth toe ^|, its claw ^%. 



Female. — The female, which is much larger than the male, 

 and proportionally somewhat more robust, diifers considerably 

 in colour. The bill and tarsi are much stouter, insomuch that 

 the latter are not very different in strength from those of some 

 species of the division to which the name of Astur is applied. 

 In an individual shot on the 2d October 1839, the (^esophagus 

 was four inches and three quarters in length, the crop an inch 

 and a half in width, the contracted intrathoracic part seven- 

 twelfths wide. The stomach a little compressed, round, an 

 inch and a quarter in diameter. The proventricular belt com- 

 plete, an inch and three-twelfths in breadth, without grooves. 



