FA L COXID.E — FAL COXING : FA L CONS. 



675 



without claw 1.00. The j'oung do not require to be separately described, as the species is a 

 strongly marked one, and as the young speedily acquire recDirnizable sexual characters. Tliey 

 may be distinguished when just from the 

 nest; their first covering is white down. 

 Temperate N. Am., very abundant. 

 Despite its great variation in niai'kiugs, 

 aside from the normal sexual differences, 

 tliis elegant little Falcon will be imme- 

 diately recognized by the subgeneric 

 characters of Imnunctihis, its small size, 

 and entirely peculiar coloration. Its 

 characteristic habit is to ho\er or ])oise 

 in the air over some object which seems 

 to promise a meal, and then pounce 

 down upon the prey; whence the name 

 " Windhover" for the corresponding Eu- 

 rojieaii species. Tlie birds are very 

 ivctive and noisy during the breeding sea- 

 son. They build no nest, but lay in 



hollows of trees, often deserted Wood- i'^^- it-4.-Spanow Ua«k, Florida, uat. .ize. (L. A. Faerie..; 



])eckers' hcdes, or similar nooks in rocks or about buildings, occasionally in a hole in the ground 

 of a cut bank, but very rarely occupy the open nest of some other bird. Eggs 3-7, mostly 

 4 or 5, nearly s]>heroidal, about 1.33 X 1.12; ground-c<dor usually buffy, or pale yellowish- 

 brown ; blotched all over witli dark brown, the splashes of which are usually largest and most 

 numerous toward the greater end, at or around whicli they may run into a crown or wreath. 

 Some eggs are pale brown, minutely dotted all ov(!r with dark brown ; some are white, with 

 pale brown spots; few are wliitish without any markings. They are laid from March to June 

 in different localities, and have even been found fresh in July and August. 



Note. F. s. isabellinns, queried in the 2d-4th eds. of the Key, p. 5.'38, as "a middle 

 American form of the last, occurring in the Gulf States, and shading directly into sparcerius 

 l)roj)er," has been found untenable and dismissed from all further consideration. In its stead 

 we have now to admit two other subspecies ol sparverius which have secured the apjiroval of 

 tiie A. 0. U. Committee, but which may not impossibly hereafter follow isdbellinus into the 

 limbo of unidentifiable or unverifiable races of a single well-known species: see Auk, July, 

 1892, pp. 2.')2-270, 



F. (T.) s. (leserti'eolus. (Lat. desertion, a desert, and colo, 1 iuliabit.) Desert Si'.vkkhw 

 Hawk. Larger than the average of sjyarverius proper, witli relatively longer tail ; paler, with 

 more rufous, and a larger crown patcli ; black bars on inner webs of the quills not crossing the 

 entire web, but forming serrations only: 9 witii tlie dark bars of the upper parts narrower, 

 and those of the tail more often incomph'te. Described as " a desert form from the treeless 

 regions of the Southwest." Meauxs, Auk, July, 181t2, ]). 2(i3; range given as "Western 

 T'. S., N. to eastern British Ccdnndjia and western Montana, S. to Mazatlan in nortliwestern 

 Mexico," in A. 0. IT. Li.st, 2d e<l. 18!)5, No. :iG{)a. It is a bird witli whidi I was fanuliar 

 thirty years ago in Arizona, but one which I did not suspect I should evi'r be callctl ui>on to 

 rrcognize by name. 



F. (T.) s. peiiiii'sularis. (Lat. lu'ninsular. ) St. LfCAS Si'Ai;i;n\v Hawk. - A .lepaiiperate 

 insular [read peninsular] form, in which a diminution of the general size is accompanied by an 

 intrease in the size of the l)ill ; also charactcTized by jtallor of C(.Ioration. and decrease in the 

 extent of the black markings." Iris said to be ytdlow instead of hazel in thr 9 . Low.r Cali- 

 fornia. Meariis, /. c. ]>. '2(\7 : A. O. U. List. 2d .d. 18!).->, No. [m) b. 



