634 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— RAPTOBES—ACCIPITBES. 



502. F. mexica'nus. (Lat mexicamis, Mexican. Fig. 376.) American Lannek Falcon. Prairie 

 Falcon. A medium-sized species, distinguished from any gyrfalcon by the smaller size, 

 different feathering nf the tarsus, etc. ; from the duck hawk by the general much lighter color, 

 wliich is dull brownish above instead of dark slate, etc. Adult ^ $ : Upper parts brownish- 

 drab, each feather with a paler border of brown, grayish, or whitish ; the top of the head more 

 uniform, the occiput and nape showing more whitish. Under paits white, everywhere ex- 

 cepting on tlie throat marked with firm spots of dark broM'u, most linear on the breast, then 

 more broadly oval on the belly, enlarging and tending to merge into bars on the flanks, very 

 sparse or obsolete on the crissum, in the maxillary region forming a broad iinn moustache ; 

 these markings corresponding with the ground color of the upper parts. Primaries ashy- 

 brown, with narrow but firm pale edging of outer webs and ends, the inner webs regularly 

 marked with white in fcn-m of barred indents or circumscribed spots, most numerous and regular 

 on the outer few primaries ; the white tinged with fulvous, next to the sliafts ; the outer web 

 of tlie first primary either plain, or with wliitish indents as in F. lanarius ; outer webs of sec- 

 ondaries more or less marked with fulvous ; axillars plaiu dark brown; lining of wings other- 

 wise whit(% spotted with dark brown. Tail pale brownish-gray, nearly uniform, but with 

 white tip, and more or less distinct barring or indenting with whitish, especially on the lateral 

 feathers, producing a pattern not vmlike tliat of the primaries. Bill mostly dark bluish horn- 

 C(dor, but its base, and much of under mandible, yellow ; feet yellow. Young birds have more 

 fulvous in the dark ground of the upper parts ; are more heavily spotted below, and the 

 white is there tinged with buft' or ochrey, feet phunbeous. Size very variable : length of $ about 

 18.00, extent 40.00 ; wing 13.00-13.00 ; tail 7-00-8.00 ; tarsus abont 2.00 ; middle toe without 

 claw about the same; chord of culmen, including cere, 1.00. $ larger: wing 13.00-11.00; 

 tail 8.00-9.00, etc. A noble species, representing the Old World lanner and jugger, and scarcely 

 separalili.^ therefr(jni ; abundant in Western N. Am., especially on the plains ; E. occasionally to 

 Illinois. I have traced it from Montana at lat. 49° to Arizona and S. California, and found 

 it very numerous in Wyoming, wliere it is the characteristic species of its genus; it extends 

 into Mexico. In tlie region first named it was nesting on cliffs. Eggs 2-3, from 2.05 to 2.2.5 

 X 1.55 to 1.0.5, white or creaTOy-whitish, irregularly but usually thickly clouded, mottled, and 

 llotched with reddish-brown; often with a purplish shade; thus indistinguishable from those 

 of related species. {F. iMlyagrus Cam.) 



503. P. peregri'nus. (Lat. j5ere(;rMWS, wandering. Fig. 377.) Peregrine Falcon. Duck Hawk. 

 Great-footed Hawk. A medium-sized falcon, about as large as the foregoing, but known 

 at a glance from any bird of N. Am. by the slaty-plumbeous or dark bluish-ash of the upper 

 parts, the black " moustache," and other marks, taken with its particular size and shape. 

 Wings stiff, long, thin, pointed by the 2d quill, supported nearly to its tip by 1st and 3d ; 1st 

 quill alone abruptly eniarginate on inner web, this about 2 inches from its tip ; none cut on 

 outer webs. Tomium of upper mandible strongly toothed, (jf under mandible deeply notched. 

 Tarsus feathered but a little way down in front, otherwise entirely reticulate; toes very long, 

 giving great grasp to the talons. Adult $ 9 : Above, rich dark bluish-ash or slate-color, 

 — very variable, sometimes quite slaty-blackish, again much lighter bluish-slate; the tint 

 pretty uniform, whatever it may be, over all the upper parts, but all the feathm-s with some- 

 what paler edges, and the larger ones for the most part obscurely barred with lighter and 

 darker hues. Under parts at large varying from nearly pure white to a peculiar muddy buff 

 color of different degrees of intensity; the throat and breast usually free from markings (or 

 only with a few sharp shaft pencillings) , and this white or light c(dor mounting on the auricu- 

 lars, so that it partly isolates a blackish moustache from the blackish of the side of the head; 

 the under parts, except as said, and including the under wing- and tail-coverts closely and 

 regularly barred, or less closely and more irregularly spotted, with blackish ; the bars best 

 pronounced on the flanks, tibiae, and crissum, other parts tending to spotting, which may extend 



