FAMILY FALCONIDAE 2gi 



another in the U. S. National Museum taken by M. A. Carriker, Jr., 

 on the high paramo of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern 

 Colombia. 



FALCO SPARVERIUS SPARVERIUS Linnaeus: Sparrow Hawk; Cemlcalo 



Falco sparverius Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 90. (South 

 Carolina.) 



A small falcon, reddish brown on back and tail, with a spot of 

 the same color on the center of the crown. 



Description. — Length, 245 to 270 mm. Male, top of head and 

 hindneck dark gray, with a patch of chestnut brown in the center 

 of the crown ; back, rump, and tail cinnamon-brown, the back barred 

 with black; primaries and secondaries black, the latter tipped with 

 gray ; wing coverts gray spotted with black, very heavily at the bend 

 of the wing; tail cinnamon brown, with a broad subterminal band 

 and a few lateral spots of black; outer web of outer rectrix, and 

 terminal half white, barred broadly with black ; tip of tail white or 

 buffy white; side of head white, with a black vertical band below 

 the eye, and another over the auricular region ; breast and sides 

 cinnamon to buffy white, spotted more or less with black ; throat, 

 abdomen, and under tail coverts white to buffy white; under wing 

 coverts white, spotted with black; under surface of flight feathers 

 dull gray barred boldly with white. 



Female, similar, but with wing coverts cinnamon-brown like the 

 back; entire upper surface from the upper back to the end of the 

 tail barred heavily with black ; breast and sides streaked broadly with 

 buffy brown to brownish gray. 



Measurements. — Males (10 specimens), wing 178-187 (182.2), 

 tail 120-130 (125.8), culmen from cere 12.0-12.5 (12.1), tarsus 38-40 

 (38.5) mm. 



Females, wing 187-195 (191.9), tail 125-136 (131.4), culmen from 

 cere 12-13 (12.7), tarsus 37-40 (38.5) mm. 



Winter visitor throughout the isthmus. Locally fairly common. 

 Arrives about the middle of October (Oct. 11, 1936, above Boquete; 

 Oct. 14, 1953, Pacora; Oct. 16, 1929, Perme), and remains until 

 the latter part of March or early April (Apr. 8, 1949, Chepo ; Apr. 1, 

 1954, Aguadulce; Mar. 30, 1955, (i:hico) ; Isla Coiba; Isla San Jose. 



As the sparrow hawk ranges in open country it is most common 

 in the savannas of the Pacific slope from southern Chiriqui to (Thepo, 

 including the eastern side of the Azuero Peninsula. Although heavily 

 forested areas do not afford it suitable habitat, its annual travels soon 



