280 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



DIMENSIONS OF SPECIMEN COLLECTED. 



Iris, dark brown. Cere, commissure and toes, chrome yellow. Length. 

 517 mm. Extent, 1249.5 mm. 



6, Falco sparverius, 



AMERICAN SPARROW-HAWK. During the two days spent 

 on the island in January, 1885, I saw a single pair of these 

 birds, but only succeeded in securing the female. My so- 

 journ during the winter and spring of the following year 

 showed the birds to be a resident species. It was seldom 

 that one could not approach within gun shot, even in open 

 ground, while the bird was sitting perched upon either a 

 boulder or the dead branch of a cypress. They especially 

 frequented the central and higher portions of the island. 

 By the middle of February male and female were seen in 

 company, one pair remaining near some isolated cypress 

 tree, while another pair had evidently taken up their abode 

 in a rocky cliff, the absence of suitable tree-cavities forcing 

 them to adopt some convenient hole in the rocks for a nest- 

 ing place. 



Their means of subsistence, during the time of my obser- 

 vation, consisted of coleoptera, caterpillars and other insects, 

 upon which food they became quite fat. I did not see them 

 in pursuit of small birds, and believe it is not their custom 

 to molest them, at least while insect food can be obtained. 



LIST OF SPECIMENS COLLECTED. 



