670 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —RAPTORES — ACCIPITRES. 



other parts tending to spotting, which may extend forward to invade breast (this is the rule in 

 European birds, or true 2ieregrinus ; the exception, though not a rare one, in American birds, 

 of the subspecies anatiim). Tail and its upper coverts regularly and closely barred with black- 

 ish and ashy-gray, the interspacing best marked on inner webs, and all the feathers narrowly 

 tipped with white or whitish. Primaries uniform blackish on their exposed surfaces, but on 

 inner webs marked with numerous regular and close-set spots of white, whitish, or muddy buff, 

 for the most part isolated within the webs, but on inner primaries and secondaries, and toward 

 bases of all, becoming or tending to become bars reacliing edge of feather. Bill blue-black; 

 cere and much of base of bill yellow ; feet yellow ; claws blackish. Size very variable ; length 

 of a good-sized 9 I'J.OO; extent 45.00; wing 14.50; tail 7.00. ^ averaging smaller; wing 

 12.50; tail 6.00; a usual range, sex not considered, is, wing 11.50-14.00; tail 6.00-8.00; 

 tarsus 1.75-2.10; middle toe without claw rather more. Young: Eecognizably similar to 

 adults in general characters ; not barred below, but there more or less extensively and heavily 

 streaked lengtliwise ; upper parts brownish or blackish, in either case without the glaucous 

 bloom and appearance of transverse markings which the adults show, the variegation being 

 chiefly in light gray or rusty edgings of individual feathers. This Falcon is the central figure 

 in the whole genus, and in one or another of its geographical guises is cosmopolitan; it is uni- 

 versally but irregularly distributed in N. Am., scarcely to be considered common anywhere; 

 breeds S. to S. Carolina on the Atlantic side, still farther S. in the West, usually in mountainous 

 regions ; nests on cliffs, niches of " cut banks," or in hollows in high trees ; eggs usually 3-4, 

 2.00 to 2.25 X 1-50 to 1.70, averaging about 2.10 X 1-65 ; white or whitish, spotted, blotched, 

 wreathed, clouded, etc., with reddish-browns, from chocolate or even purplish to the ochres; 

 they are in general so heavily and uniformly pigmented as to hide the ground color, and aver- 

 age among the darkest eggs of our Falconidce; they are mostly laid in April and May, but 

 the season extends through June in high latitudes. The Peregrine is a bird of noted prowess, 

 habitually striking a quarry as large as itself or larger, as Grouse, Ducks, Herons, hares, etc. 

 F. (K.) p. peal'ei. (To Titian R. Peale.) Peale's Peregrine. A dark form, described 

 from the N. W. coast. Adults with upper parts dark .slate-color ; top of head like back; breast 

 heavily spotted with blackish, and broad dusky bars on other under ]iarts. Young without 

 rusty margins of upper parts, the lower sooty blackish, streaked with pale buff. Pacific Coast 

 region from Oregon to the Aleutian and Commander islands, breeding throughout this range. 

 Queried as a subspecies in 2d-4th eds. of the Key, p. 536, but probably entitled to recognition 

 as such, like the dark local I'aces of this region in many other cases. Falco eommimis var, 

 pealei Ridgvv^. Bull. Essex Inst, v, Dec. 1873, p. 201 ; Bd. Brew, and RinoAV. Hist. N. A, 

 Birds, iii, 1874, p. 129; F. peregrinus piealei Ridgw. Proc U. S. Nat. Mus. iii, Aug. 1880, 

 p. 192; A. 0. U. Lists, 1st and 2d eds. 1886 and 1895, No. 356 a. 



(^Subgenus ^ salon: Merlins.) 



F. (2E..) columba'rius. (Lat. columbarius, a pigeon-fancier. Fig. 461.) Pigeon Hawk 



(a name also applied to Accipiter fusciis). Smaller than any of the foregoing; about size of 

 Aceipiter fuscus, but much stouter and differently proportioned. Tarsus mostly with a double 

 row of alternating scutella in front, feathered but a little way down ; middle toe without claw 

 nearly as long as tarsus. Tail about § the wings, lightly rounded. Wings pointed by 2d and 

 3d quills, 1st about equal to 4th; 1st and 2d emarginate on inner webs near end; 2d and 

 3d sinuate on outer webs. Sexes unlike; old ^ bluish above, ? and young dark there. 

 Old (^ : Above, some shade of bluish, from pale bluish-gray or bluish-ash to dark bluish- 

 slate, each feather pencilled with a fine black shaft-line. Tail banded with color of upper 

 parts and black, the subterminal black band broadest, all subject to much variation; tail 

 tijtped with white. Primaries blackish, witli lighter edges or tijis, and numerous oval trans- 



