THE SPARROW HAWK. 539 
BIRDS of rare breed these, and our local knowledge of them is still con- 
fined to the meager notes accompanying the taking of specimens by Captain 
Bendire at Fort Walla Walla, and by Dr. Merrill at Fort Sherman, Idaho. 
Capt. Bendire concluded that the bird did not breed near Walla Walla, but Dr. 
Merrill took a specimen at Fort Sherman on the 20th of August; and it is alto- 
gether probable that the bird will be found as a rare nester in Washington. 
In habit the Richardson Merlin is an exact counterpart of the better- 
known Pigeon Hawk. In plumage it is much lighter, and appears at a glance 
to be a mere bleached, or desert type, of the Falco colwmbarius race. Perhaps 
it is; but the persistence of its siz tail-bars argues against this theory, and 
points to a more ancient strain, from which both were derived, and of which 
the European Merlin with its eight tail-bars is a cognate example. 
No. 218. 
SPARROW HAWK. 
O. U. No. 360. Falco sparverius Linn. 
Synonym.—Rusty-cROWNED FALcon. 
Description.—Adult male: ‘Top of head slaty blue, with a rufous crown- 
patch; sides of head and throat white, a black stripe from the lower eye-lid an- 
teriorly, proceeding obliquely downward; a similar transverse bar on the side of 
the neck, and a dab on either side and sometimes in the middle of the cervix; 
back, scapulars, and tail rich rusty red; strong black bars in variable quantity 
across the middle of the back and lower scapulars, or rarely reaching cervix; a 
heavy subterminal black band on tail, the central feathers tipped with rufous 
and the others with white; the wing-coverts and inner quills (including second- 
aries) slaty blue, the former black- spotted and the latter crossed by a heavy black 
bar ; primaries blackish, the point of wing formed by the second; the first sharply 
emarginate on the inner Ww eb, the second slightly So; all the wing- quills heavily 
spotted with white on the inner webs, these spots confluent i in bars on the under 
surface; below whitish or slightly tinged, immaculate on lower belly, flanks, and 
crissum; elsewhere (save on throat, as noted above) lightly tinged or heavily 
shaded with rufous——the fore breast usually but not always unmarked, the sides 
and middle belly very lightly or quite heavily spotted with black. Bill bluish black ; 
cere and feet yellow. Young male Similar to adult, but lower scapulars and 
wing-quills lightly tipped with white; not so heavily shaded with rufous below. 
Adult female: Subsimilar, but wings like the back; the black barring regular and 
continuous over entire back, wings (except quills), and tail—the tail having ten 
to twelve bars, but the subterminal bar often larger; barring indicated narrowly 
across upper tail-coverts ; below not tinged with rufous, but streaked instead with 
rusty brown; the sides sometimes barred with blackish. Young female: “Similar 
to adult, but colors softer, deeper, and more blended” (Ridgway). Adult male, 
