260 Mearns on the. Aiiiericati Sfarroiv Hazuks. [July 



tail-feather variegated with black and white, others having two 

 or three outer feathers varied with bluish, wliite and black, while 

 in extreme cases the rufous is limited to the basal portion of the 

 middle feathers, the rest of the tail being crossed by three or four 

 more or less complete bars of black, the intermediate spaces be- 

 ing bluish centrally, changing to whitish on the outer feathers. 

 The single female in which the crown patch is wanting (No. 84,- 

 47S, Smiths. Inst., Mt. Carmel, Illinois, October 5, 1874; J. L. 

 Ridgvvay), has the top of the head brownish slate, almost as in 

 Falco dominicensis. 



All of the males from the eastern United States have a rather 

 liberal amount of transverse black markings on the rufous feathers 

 of the back and scapulars, though the bluish gray of the wings 

 often encroaches considerably on this area ; and the feathers of 

 the rump and vipper tail-coverts are quite often of the same color, 

 the latter with a black central spot. 



The white edging to the tips of the tail-feathers often varies to 

 cinereous (most often on the central pair), rusty, or yellowish 

 or grayish white. Sometimes the central feathers have gray tips 

 enclosing a central or two lateral rufous spots, as seen in some ex- 

 amples of the light phase oi F. dominicensis. 



With a good series from Florida and the Gulf Coast, I am un- 

 able to characterize this littoral form in such a manner that spec- 

 imens could be distinguished with any certainty from typical 

 sparvcrius of the Eastern States, though there are appreciable 

 average differences which strike the eye of those accustomed to 

 making critical comparisons. The alleged subspecies isabellifius 

 is described as having the bluish ash of the head changed to 

 plinnbeous, without the central patch of rufous, the breast and 

 imderparts strongly ochiaceous, and the spotting much reduced in 

 amount, especially below. Except as regards the last particular, 

 and a slight disparity of size, the characters assigned prove 

 to be wholly inconstant ; and, accordinglv, the name has been 

 dropped from our check-lists. The crown patch is more fre. 

 quently absent in specimens from the northward of the latitude of 

 Tennessee and Virginia than south of that ; ; nd the top of the 

 head averages more darkly plumbeous in northern birds than in 

 those of Florida. Respecting the intensity of the ochraceous 

 tinge on the underparts of the male, the ditl'erence between the 

 two series is slight, averaging about the same. It is most intense 



