THE BIRDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 121 



rare on the southern side of the Samana Peninsula. The bird is not 

 averse to the haunts of man and may be seen even in the gardens in 

 the suburbs of Port-au-Prince. 



The sparrow hawk builds its nest in hollows in trees. Bond has 

 observed them mating as early as January. At Comendador on April 

 30, 1927, Wetmore bought two young not quite fledged from a boy 

 who said that he had taken them from a hollow in a palm. These 

 were male and female. Abbott collected a mated pair at Jeremie, 

 December 3, 1917, and shot a female at Etroites on Gonave Island, 

 March 20, 1920, that contained eggs nearly ready to be laid. The 

 season for breeding probably varies as climatic conditions are di- 

 verse in different parts of the island. 



Wetmore recorded the sparrow hawk eating lizards on several 

 occasions and once saw one carrying a small snake. Abbott writes 

 that the stomach of one taken at Jeremie, January 16, 1918, was filled 

 with insects, mostly grasshoppers. The bird is a useful species as it 

 is frequently a destroyer of the larger injurious insects. 



The names Falco mercurialis and F. plwmbiceps of Hartlaub 4 ' 1 

 based on collections by Wurttemberg, applied to supposed races of 

 the sparrow hawk of Cuba and Haiti seem to have been overlooked. 

 Hartlaub's statement in full is as follows : 



" 3. Falco sparverius, auct. Von dieser Art beobachtete der Herzog 

 zwei Subspecies, eine dunkelgraugefarbte, welche er F. mercurialis — 

 und eine lohgelbe, welche er F. plwmbiceps nennt. Bei den Creolen 

 hiess ersterer S. Antonio, letzterer S. Nicola. Beide kommen auf 

 Cuba und Haiti vor." So far as Haiti is concerned these are syno- 

 nyms of Falco dominicensis Gmelin, published in 1788, while for 

 Cuba they are antedated by Falco sparverioides Vigors described 

 in 1827. 



The degree of relationship between the sparrow hawks of His- 

 paniola and those of Cuba is one somewhat difficult to establish in 

 spite of the abundant material from both islands at hand. The 

 Cuban bird Falco sparverius sparverioides Vigors in the male has 

 the wing 170.0 to 185.0 mm. (with an average in 12 specimens of 

 175.8), and in the female 174.0 to 191.0 (with an average in twelve 

 skins of 182.8 mm.) Many of both sexes are deeply rufescent above 

 and below, this color being relieved only by the usual black mark- 

 ings; while others are nearly white on the under surface. Some 

 have considered these two color phases as distinct species but for this 

 there is no foundation as the extremes are connected by intergrades 

 so that they merge into one another. Barbour notes that light and 

 dark birds frequently mate. 



40 Naumannia, 1852, pt. 2, p. 52. 



