THE SPARROW-HAWK 



[ORDER : Accipitres, SUBORDER : Falcones. FAMILY : Buteonidce. 



SUBFAMILY : Accipitrince] 



PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 



[F. C. R. JOURDAIN. W. P. PYCRAFT. A. L. THOMSON] 



SPARROW-HAWK [Accipiter nisiis (Linnaeus). Blue-hawk, pigeon-hawk, 

 musket. French, epervier commun ; German, Sperber ; Italian, sparviere]. 



I. Description. The sparrow-hawk may readily be distinguished by the 

 relatively short wings and long tail, and the fact that the middle toe is more than 

 twice as long as the beak measured from its tip to the cere. The sexes are dissimilar 

 in coloration, and the female is much larger than the male. The adult male has the 

 upper parts of a dark slate-grey ; the tail with a brownish tinge and crossed by 

 four or five dark bars. The cheeks are of a pale chestnut, the under parts white, 

 closely barred on the breast and flanks with narrow, sharply defined transverse 

 bars of dark brown. On the fore-breast and flanks the feathers are tipped with 

 bright rust-red, while on the mid-breast an obscure, narrow band of rust-colour 

 runs along the superior border of the bars just referred to. On the hinder flanks 

 the red area greatly increases in extent on the outer webs of the feathers, forming 

 a conspicuous rust-red area. The tibial feathers are also barred, and the lower 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts are white. In very old birds the dark brown 

 bars on the under parts disappear altogether, leaving nothing but Bartolozzi- 

 red bars, producing a very beautiful effect : it may be, however, that this excep- 

 tionally red plumage is due not to age, but to individual variation. A more or 

 less conspicuous patch of white appears on the nape. The cere, feet, and iris 

 are lemon-yellow. (PI. 146.) Length 13 in. [33OO mm.]. The female has the 

 upper parts greyish brown, the tail paler than the back, and crossed by four dark 

 brown bars. The cheeks are of a pale rust-colour striated with brown ; the throat 



VOL. IV. O 



