676 SYS TEMA TIC S YNOPSIS. —RAP TOR ES — AC CIPITRES. 



F. (T.) dominicen'sis. (Lat. inhabiting the island of Dominique, or St. Domingo.) CUBAN 

 Sparrow Hawk. Closely related to F. sparverius, and generally similar, but apparently a 

 distinct species, in both of the two color-phases which it presents. Light phase (= F. domini- 

 censis proper). Adult <J: Above as in sparverius, but with little black spotting. CrovA'u usu- 

 ally without a rusty spot, being bluish like the wings; forehead broadly white; a conspicuous 

 white superciliary stripe ; maxillary stripes indistinct or obsolete ; under surfaces of quills white, 

 with dusky serrations in parts of tlieir extent only ; uuder parts white, unmarked, shaded with 

 pale rufous on the breast. Dark phase (= F. sparverioides) . Adult $ : Above, except tail 

 (which is as in sparverius), entirely dark plumbeous, with a blackish nuchal collar, and dusky 

 front and auriculars ; primaries and edges and subterminal portion of tail-feathers, black. Be- 

 neath, deep rufous (like the back of spiarverius) with a wash of plumbeous across jugulum ; 

 throat grayish-white. Inner webs of i^rimaries slaty, with transverse cloudings of darker. The 

 9 in either phase has the upper parts rufous brown, banded with blackish, the top of the head 

 bluish-gray or slate-gray, with or without a rufous patch ; the under parts ranging from pale 

 bufi", spotted or streaked with rusty brown, and white throat, to uniform chestnut-rufous, which 

 also colors the linings of the wings ; and dusky mottled inner webs of primaries. Cuba, Hayti 

 (Santo Domingo), and Porto Rico; casual in Florida. Previous editions of the Key have de- 

 scribed only the dark phase, which was supposed to be a different species from F. dominicensis 

 Gm., the light phase, which latter is also F. lencnphn/s Ridgway. The two are now united 

 under the earliest name. (A. 0. U. No. [361.]-) 



(Subgenus Rhynchofalco.) 



F. (R.) fuscicoerules'cens. (Lat. fiiscns, dark; cosrulescens , bluish.) Femoral Falcon. 

 Aplomado Falcon. Bill robust, with large cere; irregular scutellation of tarsus continuous 

 on the toes; tarsus a little longer than middle toe without claw ; 2cl and 3d quills longest ; 1st 

 about equal to 4th ; 1st and 2d emarginate on inner webs ; 2d and 3d sinuate on outer webs. 

 Size medium (among the smaller Falcons) ; form slender ; sexes alike. Adult ^ 9 • Above, 

 uniform plumbeous; tail with about 8 narrow white bars, and tipj)ed with white, as are the 

 secondaries; primaries with numerous narrow white bars on inner webs, mostly being isolated 

 transverse spots, reaching neithei' shaft nor inner edge of feathers; same pattern less definitely 

 continued on to secondaries. Side of head with a broad white or tawny postocular stripe, con- 

 tinuous wdth narrowly white forehead, shading into orange-brown on nape, where confluent 

 with its fellow; auriculais mostly white, set in black of side of head, but continuous with white 

 of throat, so that a black supra-auricular stripe meets a black mystacial stripe under eye. 

 Sides of body and a broad belly-band black, with or without numerous narrow white bars; 

 extent of this black very variable ; it usually leaves the breast white or tawny, but in younger 

 specimens the whole breast is streaked with black on a tawny ground. Throat usually white. 

 Lining of wings blacldsh, spotted with white, the border mostly white or tawny. Flanks, 

 flags, and crissum uniform tawny or orange-brown. Young sufliciently similar, but upper 

 parts rather dark brown than plumbeous. Lengtli J 5.00 or more; wing 10.00-11.00 ; tail 

 7.00-8.00; tarsus 1.75 ; middle toe without claw 1..50. A handsome Hawk, well-known and 

 wide-ranging in South and Central America, reaching over our Mexican border in southern 

 Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Nest in trees or bushes ; eggs usually 3 in our country, 

 1.80 X 1 30, white, finely dotted with light brown, overlaid with blotches of dark brown, very 

 variable in pattern, as usual in this genus, laid in April and May with us. {F.femoralis (Temm. 

 1823) of the orig. ed. of the Key.) 



