530 SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. 
than those of the Sparrow Hawk. The number of dark bands on 
the tail is the same in both, namely four on the middle feathers, and 
six on the lateral. The tail is not always precisely even, being in 
both European and American birds often slightly rounded, the late- 
ral feather being sometimes a quarter of an inch shorter than the 
longest. © 
A species most intimately allied to the Sharp-shinned Hawk pre- 
sents the same form and colours, but differs somewhat in its propor- 
tions, and is much larger. The bill is much higher at the base, its up- 
per outline slopes from the commencement, and the festoon on its edge 
is less prominent. The tarsi and toes are proportionally stronger, the 
edge on the former not nearly so prominent. The first quill is a little 
longer than the first secondary, the fifth quill (not the fourth) is long- 
est ; and the tail is rounded, the lateral feather in a female. being eight- 
twelfths of an inch shorter than the longest. The dimensions of a fe- 
male of this species, shot by myself in South Carolina, are as follows :— 
Length to end of tail 164 inches; wing from flexure 10; tail 713; 
bill along the ridge 1 ; tarsus 2;4; hind toe }$, its claw 1; middle toe 
8.) ate 74 
13, its claw #5. 
It is very probable that this is the Accipiter Meaicanus of Mr Swatn- 
son, whose brief account of a female of that species, in the Fauna Bo- 
reali-Americana, agrees sufficiently with it. There are, however, some 
errors in his critical observations, at p. 44. Thus, he states that W1ison’s 
figure of the Slate-coloured Hawk, Accipiter Pennsyleanicus, is per- 
fectly characteristic, in having the tail quite even at the end; but that 
Temmincx’s Autour a bec sinueux is doubtful, the tail being represented 
as distinctly rounded. Now, in fact, the tail of our Sharp-shinned 
Hawk is when perfect a little rounded, but often when worn quite 
even or square. Both the figures in Plate CCCLXXIV represent it 
as a little rounded, and such it is in five specimens out of eight, four 
of these being females, and one a male; while the three specimens in 
which the tail may be said to be quite even are males. Again, he 
states that “‘ the anterior scales on the tarsus of A. Pennsylvanicus are 
entire, being apparently formed externally of one entire piece ; where- 
as in Mewicanus, the transverse divisions are distinctly visible.” The 
~ latter part of the sentence is certainly correct, in so far as may be 
