FALCONID-'E. 



FALCONID.E. 



with three conspicuous transverse bands of dark brown ; chiu, cheeks, 

 throat, breast, belly, thighs, and under tail-coverts, rufous, with 

 numerous transverse bara of darker rufous brown ; legs and toes long, 

 slender, and yellow ; the claws curved, sharp, and black. 



Female. Generally 3 inches longer than the male ; beak bluish 

 horn-colour ; cere yellowish, the irides yellow ; top of the head, 

 upper part of the neck, back, wings, and tail-coverts, brown the 

 base of many of the feathers white, which, extending beyond the 

 edge of the feather immediately above it, causes a white spot or 

 mark ; primaries and tail-feathers light brown, barred transversely 

 with darker brown ; under surface of the neck, body, wing-coverts, 

 and thighs, grayish-white, barred transversely with brown ; under 

 surface of the wing and tail-feathers of the same colour, but the light 

 and dark bara much broader ; the first six wing-primaries emarginated ; 

 the fourth and fifth quill-feathers equal and the longest, the first quill- 

 feather the shortest ; legs and toes yellow ; clawa long, curved, sharp, 

 and black. 



Young Hale. Resembles the female; but the brown feathers of 

 the back and the wing-coverts are edged with reddish-brown ; feathers 

 of the tail reddish-brown, particularly toward the base, with three 

 conspicuous dark-brown transverse bands. In other particulars like 

 the female : both have a collar formed by a mixture of white and 

 brown, which extends from the sides of the neck to the nape. 

 (Yarrell.) 



The Sparrowhawk haunts wooded district?. It is the great enemy 

 of small quadrupeds and birds, and is often very destructive to 

 young chicks in poultry-yards in the breeding season. Used in 

 falconry it is the best of all hawks for landrails. (Sebright) " The 

 Sparrowhawk generally takes possession of some old or deserted nest 

 in a tree, most frequently that of the crow, in which the female 

 deposits four or five eggs, each about 1 inch 7 lines long by 1 inch 

 4 lines broad, of a pale bluish-white, blotched and spotted with dark 

 brown. The young are covered with a delicate and pure white down, 

 nnd are abundantly supplied with food. Mr. Selby mentions having 

 found a nest of five young gparrowhawks, which contained besides, 

 a lapwing, two blackbirds, one thrush, and two green-linnets, recently 

 killed," and partly divested of their feathers." (Yarrell.) 



It is spread throughout Europe, Japan (Temmiuck), Smyrna (Mr. 

 Strickland), Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Kussia, and thence south- 

 ward over the European continent to Spain and Italy. Common 

 in most of the counties of England, and has been observed in the 

 went and north of Ireland; occurs also in Scotland and its 

 northern islands. (Yarrell.) .Very common, migratory, near Rome. 

 (Bonaparte.) 



. and foot of Sparrowhawk (Accipiti-r fringiUariu). 



Tim form is widely spread. Colonel Hykes records Ac<-l t ,'il: ,- 



(u-ni-iubling A. frmijillarius, but difiVring in certain 



point*), mid A. /:iuuumien among the birds of the Dukhun (Dcccan). 



HAT. HIST. liIV. VOL. II. 



In the South African Museum will ba found Accipi ter polyzonus, A. 

 polyzonoldcs, A. niger, A. Gabar, A. Tachiro, A. minitlus, and A. 

 n^tvmtru. 



Mr. Vigors remarks that there are some species which seem to be 

 allied to this sub-family and to be intermediate between it and the 

 succeeding sub-family of Falcons, which, from some peculiarities of 

 character, cannot well be appended to any established genus. They 

 possess, he observes, a shortness of wing which would incline us to 

 refer them to some of the present groups : but their upper mandible, 

 strongly and doubly dentated, presents a character that will not admit 

 of their being included iu any of the foregoing genera, in which the 

 mandibles are entire, or where the place of the tooth is supplied by 

 a rounded prominence. These species Mr. Vigors would have wished 

 to arrange in one genus ; but they are found to differ in essential 

 points which bring them respectively within the pale of the two 

 conterminous sub-families now under consideration ; and he feels 

 obliged, for the sake of perspicuity, to adopt the following genus of 

 which the type is Falco bidentatus of Latham. 



Harpagus, Vigors (Bidem of Spix). Beak short ; upper mandible 

 strongly bidentated, lower with a double notch; tarsi moderate; 

 acrotarsia seutellated ; third and fourth quills longest, equal. 



Mr. Vigors observes that the essential characteristic of this group 

 is the double tooth on both the upper and lower mandible. The wings, 

 which correspond with those of the other Hawks, in being one-third" 

 shorter than the tail, have the third and fourth quill-feathers, which 

 are the longest, of equal length. The tarsi are of moderate length 

 and strength, and have the acrotarsia scutellated as in the latter 

 groups of the present sub-family. The nostrils are of a semicircular 

 form and the cere is naked. 



H. bidentaiut. Length, a foot and some lines (French). Slate- 

 colour above ; throat white ; breast and belly red, undulated with 

 yellowish ; lower coverts of the tail white ; tail nearly equal, brownish, 

 barred with whitish. It is a native of Brazil and Guyana. 



Head and ftxH o 



Mr. Vigors remarks that Falco Diodon of Temmiuck is to be referred 

 to this genus. 



Gampsonyx (Vigors). Beak short, mandibles entire ; nostrils 

 rounded ; wings short, second quill longest, third generally equal to 

 the second, and internal web of the first and second strongly notched 

 near the apex ; tail moderate, equal ; feet moderate ; r.arsi reticu- 

 lated, acrotarsia feathered below tho knee to the middle. (Vigors.) 



" The genus is founded on a small and beautiful Haw'.v," writes Mr. 

 Vigors in ' The Zoological Journal,' vol. ii., " which has been kindly 

 submitted to my inspection by Mr. Swainson, one of thr !'niits of that 

 gentleman's extensive researches in Brazil. This lv..l decidedly 

 belongs to the Accipitrine sub-family of the FcUconiifZ ; but it ia 

 placed at that remote extremity of it, where the spiv js, gradually 

 approaching the Falcons, partially assume some of their leading 

 characters. It possesses the bill of the Hawks, and alsu rho shortness 

 of wing which so strongly characterises them ; but th .structure of 

 the wing itself is the same as in Falco, the second quill- leather being 

 the longest, and the first and second of these feathers 1 icing marked 

 on tho inner web by an abrupt emargiuation near the apex ; while the 

 tarsi also display the character of the same group in having the 

 acrotareia reticulated. The bird thus exhibits a striking modification 

 of form, at once partaking of the chief of the respective characters of 

 both the Hawks and Falcons ; with tlic former of which it may in 

 addition be observed that it agrees in its general form, and with some 

 of the latter, particularly the beautiful group of Icrax cierulescens, in 

 its colours, and in the general distribution of them. To the latter 

 group indeed it has a striking resemblance, and might perhaps be 

 referred unconditionally to it, could we pass over the important 

 character of the untoothed bill" 



Q. Swainxonii. Above cineraceous-black, white beneath ; front, 

 cheeks, sides of the abdomen, and femoral feathers, orange ; a black 

 spot on each side of tho breast. Beak black. Feathers of the back 

 and scapulars ashy-black, spotted with ferruginous. Lower side and 

 nuchal collar white, sparingly variegated with orange. Primaries 

 blackish, internally margined with white at the apex ; secondaries 

 i>:iri]>x]y sprinkled with ferruginous, beneath white. Tail-feathers 

 ashy-black, internally (the middle excepted) margined with white, 



3 A 



