THE SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. 81 
blotches and markings of a shade darker than the ground- 
color of the egg. A great number of specimens in my col- 
lection exhibit a variation in dimensions of from 1.82 inch 
to 2 inches in length, by from 1.50 inch to 1.62 in breadth. 
The average dimensions are about 1.78 inch by 1.52 inch. 
The breeding season varies considerably with this species, 
even in the same latitude. I have found nests with eggs as 
early as the first week in May, and as late as the first week 
in June. Usually the eggs are laid before the 20th of May 
in Massachusetts. The season for the northern district of 
New England seems to be from one to two weeks later than 
this; that of the southern district, about a week earlier. 
A pair of birds that nested in Newton, Mass., in the 
summer of 1866, were robbed of their eggs four times in 
the season. They built different nests in the same grove, 
and laid in the four litters four, four, five, and three eggs 
respectively. The eggs of the last litter were very small ; 
but little larger than the eggs of the Sharp-shinned Hawk. 
ACCIPITER FUSCUS. — Gmelin. 
The Sharp-shinned Hawk. 
Falco fuscus et dubius, Gm. Syst. Nat., I. 280, 281 (1788). 
Accipiter striatus, Vieillot. Ois. d’Am. Sept., I. 42 (1807). 
Falco velox et Pennsylvanicus, Wilson. Am. Orn., V. 116, and VI. p. 13 (1812). 
Sparvius lineatus, Vieillot. Ency. Meth., III. 1266 (1823). 
Nisus Maljini, Lesson. Traite d’Orn., I. 58 (1881). 
DESCRIPTION. 
Adult. —Small; tail rather long; legs and toes slender; entire upper parts 
brownish-black, tinged with ashy; occiput mixed with white; throat and under tail 
coverts white, the former with lines of black on the shafts of the feathers; other 
under parts fine light rufous, deepest on the tibiae, and with transverse bands 
of white; shafts of the feathers with lines of dark-brown; tail ashy-brown tipped 
with white, and with about four bands of brownish-black; quills brownish-black, 
with bands of a darker shade, and of white on their inner webs; secondaries and 
tertiaries with large partially concealed spots of white. 
Young. — Entire upper parts dull umber-brown, tinged with ashy; neck behind 
mixed with white; greater wing coverts and shorter quills with large partially con- 
cealed spots of white; under parts white, with longitudinal stripes and circular and 
ovate spots of reddish-brown, changing into transverse bands on the flanks 
