FALCONnXiE DIURNAL RAPTORES. 475 



dark brown or rufous very rarely immaculate; crissum usually immaculate, but some- 

 times with faintand distant bars. Lining of the wing white, sometimes tinged with ochra- 

 ceous, often immaculate, but generally sparsely (never heavily) spotted with rufous or 

 brown. Under surface of the primaries cinereous (the outer two or three more whitish) 

 sometimes plain, sometimes indistinctly barred with darker. Male. Breast- patch rufous 

 with darker shaft- streaks. Female. Breast-patch dark grayish umber, or blackish 

 brown (like the back). 



Young. Above brownish black, with a faint purplish lustre, the feathers all paler on 

 their borders ; wing-coverts and scapulars more or less variegated with ochraeeous or 

 whitish spotting, this usually very conspicuous on the longer scapulars; upper tail- 

 coverts ochraceous or whitish (their inner webs more brownish), barred with dusky. 

 Tail as in adult. Ground color of the head, neck, and lower parts, ochraceous, varying in 

 shade from very deep cream-color to nearly white; the feathers of the head, neck, 

 anterior part of the back, and sides of the breast with median longitudinal tear-shaped 

 spots of brownish black; lower parts generally spotted, sometimes everywhere, with 

 black, and occasionally immaculate. 



>>. Melanistic phase. 



Adult. Prevailing color plain blackish brown; the tibiae, lining of the wings, and 

 sometimes the breast, inclining more or less to rufous. Crissum usually white, some- 

 times immaculate, generally barred with rusty or blackish; occasionally with dusky and 

 whitish bars of equal width. No white on the throat, or else but little of it. Young. 

 Brownish black, variegated with ochraceous spotting, in amount varying with the indi- 

 vidual. 



This, being a western species, here reaching the normal eastern 

 limit of its range, is one of the rarer species in Illinois. The writer 

 has never identified it with certainty anywhere in Wabash or ad- 

 joining counties; but Mr. Nelson found it breeding on Fox Prairie, 

 in Richland county, during the summer of 1875, and obtained speci- 

 mens. 



In his list of the birds of northeastern Illinois (p. 119), Mr. Nel- 

 son records the following as to its occurrence in that portion of the 

 State : 



"Of rather rare occurrence in this vicinity. Have only noted it 

 during the migrations. I obtained an immature specimen May 30, 

 1875, at Riverdale, 111., and have since seen others. As this species 

 breeds in southern Illinois it probably also breeds in the northern 

 portions of the State." 



