TINNUNCULUS CINNAMOMINUS. 



r304. FALCO FUSCO-OERULESCENS, Vieill. 

 (ORANGE-CHESTED HOBBY.) 

 Falco femoralis, Burm. La-Plata Raise, ii. p. 437 (Pampas). Hypotriorchis 

 femoralis, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 121 iid. P. Z. S. 1808, p. 143 (Buenos 

 Ayres) ; Hudson, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 536 (Rio Negro) ; Lurnford, Ibis, 1877, 

 p. 187 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 398 (Patagonia) ; Salvin, Ibis, 1880, 

 p. 362 (Salta) ; Gibson, Ibis, 1879, p. 412 (Buenos Ayres) ; White, P. Z. S. 

 1883, p. 41 (Cordova) j Withington, Ibis, 1888, p. 470 (Lomas de Zamora). 

 Falco fusco-ca3rulescens, Sharpe, Cat. B. i. p. 400. 



Description. Above dull slaty blackish, rump variegated with white ; supers 

 ciliaries lengthened and joined behind on the nape rufous : beneath, throat and 

 breast pale cinnamomeous with black shaft-stripes on the breast ; broad band 

 across the belly black, with slight white transverse lines ; lower belly and thighs 

 clear cinnamomeous ; wings and tail blackish with transverse white bars ; bill 

 yellow with black tip; feet orange, claws black.: whole length 13*5 inches., 

 wing lO'O, tail 7*0. Female similar, but larger. 



IHab. Central and South America. 

 The Orange-chested Hobby is found throughout South and Central 

 America, but the form met with here differs, to some extent, in habits 

 from its representatives of the hotter region. It is a Patagonian 

 bird, the most common Falcon in that country, and is migratory, winter- 

 ing in the southern and central Argentine provinces. In its winter 

 home it is solitary, and fond of hovering about farm-houses, where it 

 sits on a tree or post and looks out for its prey. Compared with the 

 Peregrine it has a very poor spirit, and I have often watched it give 

 chase to a bird, and just when it seemed about to grasp its prey, give up 

 the pursuit and slink ingloriously away. It never boldly and openly 

 attacks any bird, except of the smallest species, and prefers to perch on 

 an elevation from which it can dart down suddenly and take its prey by 

 surprise. 



The nest is a slovenly structure of sticks on a thorny bush or tree. 

 The eggs, which I have not seen, Darwin describes as follows : " Sur- 

 face rough with white projecting points ; colour nearly uniform dirty 

 wood-brown; general appearance as if it had been rubbed in brown 

 mud." 



305. TINNUNCULUS CINNAMOMINUS (Sw,X 

 (CINNAMOMEOUS KESTREL.) 



Falco sparverius, Burm. La-Plata Eeise, ii. p. 437 (Mendoza, Tucuman); 

 Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 1 10 (Entrerios). Tinnunculus sparverius, Darwin, 

 Zool. 'Beagle,' iii. p. 29 (Rio Negro); Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 121 ; iid. 

 P. Z. S. 1868, p. 143 (Buenos Ayres) ; Hudson, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 530 (Rio 



