FALCONID.E — DIURNAL RAPTORES, 475 



dark brown or rufous— very rarely immaculate; crissum usually immaculate, but some- 

 times with faintand distant biu's. Lining of the wing white, sometimes tinged with oehra- 

 ceous. often immaculate, but generally sparsely (never heavily) spotted with rufous or 

 brown. Under surface of the primaries cinereous (the outer two or three more whitish) 

 sometimes plain, sometimes indistinctly barred with darker. Male. Breast- patch rufous 

 with darker shaft- streaks. Female. Breast-patch dark grayish umber, or blackish 

 brown (Uke the back). 



Toung. Above brownish black, with a faint purplish lustre, the feathers all paler on 

 their borders; wing-coverts and scapulars more or less variegated with ochraceous or 

 whitish spotting, this usually very conspicuous on the longer scapulars; upper tail- 

 coverts ochraceous or whitish (their inner webs more brownish), barred with dusky. 

 Tail as in adult. Ground color of the head, neck, and lower parts, ochraceous, varying in 

 shiide from very deep cream-color to nearly white; the feathers of the head, neck, 

 anterior part of the back, and sides of the breast with median longitudinal tear-shaped 

 spots of brownish black; lower p.arts generally spotted, sometimes everywhere, with 

 black, and occasionally immaculate. 



h. Melanistio phase. 

 Adult. Prevailing color plain blackish brown; the tibise, lining of the wings, and 

 .sometimes the breast, inclining more or less to rufous. Crissum usually white, some- 

 times immaculate, generally barred with rusty or blackish; occasionally with dusky and 

 whitish bars of equal width. No white on the throat, or else but little of it. Young. 

 Brownish black, variegated with ochraceous spotting, in amount varying with the indi- 

 vidual. 



This, being a western species, here reaching the normal eastern 

 hmit of its range, is one of the rarer species in Ilhnois. The writer 

 has never identified it with certainty anywhere in Wabash or ad- 

 joining counties; but Mr. Nelson found it breeding on Fox Prairie, 

 in Eichland county, during the summer of 1875, and obtained speci- 

 mens. 



In his list of the birds of northeastern Ilhnois (p. 119), Mr. Nel- 

 son recoi'ds the following as to its occurrence in that portion of the 

 State : 



"Of rather rare occurrence in this vicinity. Have only noted it 

 during the migrations. I obtained an immature specimen May 30, 

 1875, at Eiverdale, 111., and have since seen others. As this species 

 breeds in southern Illinois it probably also breeds in the northern 

 portions of the State." 



