162 NORTH AMERICAX BIRDS. 



B* Back rufous only in the 9 • Lower parts deep ferruginous-rufous ; front 



and auriculars dusky. 



3. T. sparveroides.^ ^. Above, except the tail, entirely dark plum- 

 beous, with a blackish nuchal collar ; primaries and edges and sub- 

 terminal portion of tail-feathers, black. Beneath deep rufous (like the 

 back of sparverius and leucophrys), with a wash of plumbeous across 



narrower and less numerous ; the nape or upper part of back, and rum]), being almost immaculate. 

 Tail with ten black bars, these scarcely touching the shaft ; the last is about .36 wide, the others 

 about .16 ; tip of tail scarcely paler than base ; lateral feather with outer web edged broadly with 

 paler or ochraceous white, rufous next the shaft, immaculate ; inner web with only three or four 

 very narrow bars on terminal half. Head as in the male, but vertex considerably tinged with ru- 

 fous. Whole lower parts, including frontal and lateral regions of the head, continuous pure 

 white ; breast with a very faint yellowish tinge ; side of the breast and sides with a few scattered 

 minute elliptical longitudinal flakes of rusty, — more black on the shaft. Whole under surface 

 of the wing white, as in the male. Wing-formula, 2, 3-4, 1. Wing, 7.00 ; tail, 4.70; tarsu.s, 

 1.40 ; middle toe, .90 ; culmen, .51. A Cuban female belonging to Mr. Lawrence is exactly 

 similar. One in the S. I. Collection, from Hayti (42,420, Port au Prince, June 5, 1860 ; A. C. 

 Younglove), diflfers only in less purely black bars, and in utter absence of the mustache. A male 

 from the same locality (43,418) is like it in the last respect. 



Juv. 9 (34,235, Remedies, Cuba, December, 1864; N. H. Bishop). Similar to the adult 

 described, but jugulum tinged with soft pinkish-rufous, and the black bars on upper parts — es- 

 pecially on wings — with a ]ilumbeous cast. 



In regard to this form, we must either consider that it is a distinct species, or assume that it is 

 a light phase of a Cuban species, of which T. sparvcroides may be the dark or rufescent form ; 

 knowing, as we do, that the diiferences between leucophrys and sparvcroides depend on neither 

 sex, age, nor season, then the only way to account for the two phases is to consider that the 

 Cuban bird (if we deny it the rank of a species) presents a very peculiar example of dimor- 

 phism. I have never yet seen a specimen which was not decidedly one or the other. An adult 

 male from Ciiba is immaculate white beneath, the breast very strongly tinged with deep rufous, 

 the nmstaclie wholly absent. Two females have narrow brown streaks on the breast, the mus- 

 tache nearly obsolete ; the dusky bars on primaries and tail much narrower. 



'List of Specimois examined. — Nat. Mus., 7 ; Bost. Soc, 3 ; Philad. Acad., 2 ; G. N. Law- 

 rence, 4. Total, 16. 



Measurements. — J. Wing, 6.80- 7.30 ; tail, 4.90-5.20 ; culmen, .45 ; tarsus, 1.45 ; middle 

 *toe, .90; specimens, 4. 9, Wing, 7.10-7.60; tail, 4.90-5.60; culmen, .50 -.52; tarsus, 

 1.40 ; middle toe, .91 ; specimens, 6. 



1 Falco (Tinminculus) sparvcroides. Falco sparvcroides, VifiOKS, Zool. Journ. Ill, 436, 1827; 

 Isis, 1830, p. 1166. — D'Onu. (R. de la Sagra), Hist. Cuba, 1840, p. 80, pi. i. Tinminculus 

 sparvcroides, Gray, Gen. B. fol. sp. 12, 1844. — Fraseb, Zobl. Typ. pi. xxx. — Bonap. Consp. 

 Av. p. 27. — iSTKicKL. Orn. Syn. I, 100, 1855. — Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1860, p. 1 (in part 

 dark specimens). — Ridgway, P. A. N. S. Phil. Dec. 1870, 149. Tinnunculus dominicensis 

 (not of Gmel.?), Gray, Hand List, I, 24, 1869. — GtiNDLACii, Repert. Cuba, I, 225, 1865. 

 ? Hypotriorchis ferruginciis, Sauss. Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1859, p. 117, pi. iii. 



Hah. Cuba (only ?). 



Adult (J (31,985, Cuba; J. Aekhurst). Above, continuously dark plumbeous, from bill to 

 the tail, the shafts of the feathers black (these streaks most noticeable on the head above), the 

 larger scapulars and interscapulars darker centrally, forming indistinct or obscure spots ; this 

 plumbeous covers the whole neck laterally, and the middle area of the ear-coverts. An obsolete 

 "mustache" running from the lores downward across the cheeks, a spot across ends of the ear- 

 coverts connected with that on the neck, and obsolete though continuous collar round the nape, 

 inclining to black. Primaries wholly black, basal third of secondaries the same. (No spots on 

 wings.) Tail deep chestnut, shafts of feathers black ; terminal band dull slate ; subterminal 

 black zone about .60 of an inch in width, but instead of running sharply across, as in all the 

 varieties of sparverius and in leucophrys, the black runs along the edge of each ft-«ther, bor- 



