

AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. 43 



aries black, tipt with white, and spotted on their inner vanes 

 with the same; lower part of the back, the rump and tail-coverts, 

 plain bright bay; tail rounded, the two exterior feathers white, 

 their inner vanes beautifully spotted with black; the next bright 

 bay, with a broad band of black near its end, and tipt for half 

 an inch with yellowish white, part of its lower exterior edge 

 white, spotted with black, and its opposite interior edge touched 

 with white; the whole of the others are very deep red bay, with 

 a single broad band of black near the end, and tipt with yellow- 

 ish white; cere and legs yellow, orbits the same, bill light blue; 

 iris of the eye dark, almost black, claws blue black. 



The character of this corresponds with that of the female, 

 given at large in the preceding article. I have reason, however, to 

 believe, that these birds vary considerably in the colour and 

 markings of their plumage during the first and second years; 

 having met with specimens every way corresponding with the 

 above, except in the breast, which was a plain rufous white, 

 without spots; the markings on the tail also differing a little in 

 different specimens. These I uniformly found on dissection to 

 be males; from the stomach of one of which I took a considera- 

 ble partof the carcassof a robin ( Turdusmigratorius,} including 

 the unbroken feet and claws; though the robin actually mea- 

 sures within half an inch as long as the Sparrow Hawk. 



Note. This species is very common among the cotton plantations of Geor- 

 gia and East Florida. From the island of Cuba we received a living specimen, 

 which differed in no respect from the same species in the United States. 



