^^^■] Mearns o?/ the Ameticati Sfarrow Haxvks. 2Cn 



Falco sparverius Linn. 



AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. 



Habitat. — Entire continents of both North and South Amer- 

 ica and adjacent ishuids, straggling to the West Indies, etc. 



The range of the Sparrow Hawk extends through 115 degrees 

 of latitude and 133 degrees of longitude! Few species of birds 

 are capable of following it throughout its breeding range, which 

 is nearly co-extensive with the enormous area of its habitat. That 

 a species of such wide distribution should not vary is scarcely 

 supposable; and, accordingly, we fmd it exhibiting the results of 

 environmental influences to such a degree that it becomes neces- 

 sary to recognize no less than six geographical races or subspecies 

 as follows : — 



1. Falco s/xirz'eriiis. Habitat, northern and eastern United States. 

 south through Mexico and Central America to northern South America. 



2. F. s. deserticolns. Habitat, southwestern United States, north to 

 northern Calitbrnia and western Montana, south to Mazatlan in north- 

 western Mexico. 



3. F. s. peninsularis. Habitat, peninsula of Lower California. 



4. F. s. australis. Habitat, whole of South America, except the North 

 Atlantic and Caribbean coasts; west of the Andes Mountains replaced bj 

 or mixed with the two following. 



5. F. s (Tquatorialis. Habitat, Ecuador. 



6. F. s. ciiinamomiuiis. Habitat, Chile and western Brazil. 



The above arrangement of the subspecies of Falco sparverius 

 is based on an examination of 397 specimens,* of which 241 are 

 from North America north of Mexico (102 from east and 139 

 from west of the Mississippi River), 9 from Mexico, 11 from 

 Lower California, 13 from Central America, and 23 from South 

 America, the several political divisions being i^epresented as fol- 



* For the use of this material I wish to acknowledge my obligation to Mr. Robert 

 Ridgway (for the contribution of 157 specimens in tlie collection of the Smithsonian 

 Institution), Dr. J. A. Allen (70 specimens from the American Museum of Natural 

 History), Mr. George B. Sennett (18 specimens from Texas and Pennsylvania), Mr. 

 Charles W. Richmond (16 specimens from Montana and Maryland), Mr. Gustave 

 Kohn (11 specimens from Louisiana), Mr. G. S. Miller, Jr. (10 specimens from 

 Florida, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Nova Scotia), Mr. Jno. H. Sage (8 specimens 

 from Connecticut), Mr. F. C. Browne (2 specimens from Florida), Mr. G. H. Rags- 

 dale (2 specimens from Texas), Mr. Frank X. Holzner (3 specimens from Minnesota), 

 and to Mr. T. R. Taylor, of Rochester, New York, for the generous offer of his collec- 

 tion of mounted Sparrow Hawks. 

 33 



