FALCONID.E — THE FALCONS. 



145 



of spots running in chain-lilce series; tibife with narrower and darker streaks; lower tail- 

 coverts with narrow central streaks like those on the tibiae. Frequently there is a strong 

 bluish shade on flanks and lower tail-coverts, sometimes replacing the brown of the spots 

 on the former, and clouding in a similar form the latter. Length, 11.00; extent, 23.75; 

 wing, 7.75. 



Adult female. Pattern of coloration as in the male, but the colors different. The blue 

 above replaced by dark umber-brown with a plumbeous cast, and showing more or less 

 distinct darker shaft-lines; these on the head above very broad, giving a streaked appear- 

 ance ; white spots on inner webs of primaries more ochraceous than in the male. Tail 

 dark plumbeous-brown, shading into blackish toward end, with five rather narrow 

 ochraceous or soiled white bars, the first of which is concealed by the upper coverts, the 

 last terminal. White beneath, less tinged with reddish than in the male, the tibiae not 

 different from the other portions; markings beneath as in the male. 



Juv. Above plumbeous-brown, tinged with fulvous on head, and more or less washed 

 with the same on the rump ; frequently the feathers of the back, rump, scapulars, and 

 wings pass into a reddish tinge at the edge ; this color is, however, always prevalent on 

 the head, which is conspicuously streaked with dusky. Tail plumbeous-dusky, darker 

 terminally, with five regular liglit bars, those toward the base ashy, as they approach the 

 end becoming more ochraceous ; these bars are more continuous and regular than in the 

 adult female, and are even conspicuous on the middle feathers. Primaries dusky, passing 

 on edge (terminally) into lighter; spots on the inner webs broader than in the female, and 

 pinkish-ochre ; outer webs with less conspicuous corresponding spots of the same. Beneath 

 soft ochraceous ; spots as in adult female, but less sharply defined ; tibite not darker than 

 abdomen. 



Hab. Entire continent of North America, south to Venezuela and Ecuador; West 

 India Islands. 



Localities : Ecuador (high regions in winter, Scl. P. Z. S. 1858, 451) ; Cuba (Cab. 

 Jour. II, Ixxxiii, Gundlach, Sept. 1865, 225); Tobago (Jard. Ann. Mag. 116); S. 

 Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 323, breeding?) ; W. Arizona (Coues, Pr. A. N. S. 18G6, 42) ; 

 Costa Rica (Lavvr. IX, 134) ; Venezuela (Sol. & Salv. 1869, 252). 



LIST OF SPECIMEXS EXAMINED. 



National Museum, 42; Boston Society, 11; Philadelphia Academy, 10; Museum 

 Comp. Zool., 7 ; New York Museum, 3 ; Gr. N. Lawrence, 2 ; R. Ridgway, 4. Total, 79. 



The plumage of the adult male, which is not as often seen as that of the 

 younger stages and adult female, is represented in tlie Smithsonian Collec- 

 tion by fifteen specimens, from various parts of North America. Of tliese, 

 an example from Jamaica exhibits the purest shades of color, though agree- 

 ing closely with some specimens from the interior of the United States ; the 

 cinereous above being very fine, and of a light bluish cast. The upper tail-- 

 coverts are tipped with white ; the tail is a quarter of an inch longer tlian 

 in any North American specimen, one half-inch longer than the a^•erage ; 

 the wing, however, is about the same. 



19 



VOL. in. 



