

. . . ' ( 



FALCO SPARVERIUS. 



AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK, 



[Plate XXXII. Fig. 2, Male.] 



Little Hawk, Arct. Zool. 211, JVb. 1 1 0. Emerillon de Cayenne, 

 BUFF, i, 291, PL enl. No. 444. LATH, i, 110. PEALE'S Mu- 

 seum, JVo. 340.* 



As the male and the female of this species differ considerably 

 in the markings of their plumage, the male is introduced, drawn 

 to one half its natural size, to conform with the rest of the 

 figures on the plate. 



The male Sparrow Hawk measures about ten inches in length, 

 and twenty-one in extent; the whole upper parts of the head 

 are of a fine slate blue, the shafts of the plumage being black, 

 the crown excepted, which is marked with a spot of bright 

 rufous; the slate tapers to a point on each side of the neck; 

 seven black spots surround the head, as in the female, on a 

 reddish white ground, which also borders each sloping side of 

 the blue; front, lores, line over and under the eye, chin and 

 throat, white; femoral and vent feathers yellowish white; the 

 rest of the lower parts of the same tint, each feather being streak- 

 ed down the centre with a long black drop, those on the breast 

 slender, on the sides larger; upper part of the back and scapulars 

 deep reddish bay, marked with ten or twelve transverse waves 

 of black; whole wing-coverts, and ends of the secondaries, bright 

 slate, spotted with black; primaries and upper half of the second- 



* We add the following synonymes: Falco sparverius. LINK. Syst. ed. 10, p^ 

 90. GMEI. Syst. i, p. 284. Ind. Orn. p. 42. F. Dominicensis, GMEL. Syst. 

 i, p. 285. Little Hawk, GATES BY, i, p. 5. L' Emerillon de la Caroline, BKISS. 

 Orn. i, p. 386. L'Emerillon de St. Domingue, Id. p. 389. Tinnunculus sparve- 

 rius, VIEIL. Ois. de 1'Am. Sept. p. 12-13. 



