AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. 31 



even those well acquainted with both. In return for all this abuse the 

 hawk contents himself with, now and then, feasting on the plumpest of 

 his persecutors ; who are therefore in perpetual dread of him ; and yet, 

 through some strange infatuation, or from fear that if they lose sight of 

 him he may attack them unawares, the Sparrow. Hawk no sooner appears 

 than the alarm is given, and the whole posse of Jays follow. 



The female of this species, which is here faithfully represented from 

 a very beautiful living specimen, furnished by a particular friend, is 

 eleven inches long, and twenty-three from tip to tip of the expanded 

 wings. The cere and legs are yellow ; bill blue, tipped with black ; 

 space round the eye greenish blue ; iris deep dusky ; head bluish ash ; 

 crown rufous; seven spots of black, on a white ground, surround the 

 head in the manner represented in the figure ; whole upper parts reddish 

 bay, transversely streaked with black ; primary and secondary quills 

 black, spotted on their inner vanes with brownish white ; whole lower 

 parts yellowish white, marked with longitudinal streaks of brown, except 

 the chin, vent and femoral feathers, which are white ; claws black. 



FALCO SPARVERIUS. 



AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. 



[Plate XXXII, Fig. 2— Male.] 



Idttle Hawk, Arct. Zool. 211, No. 110. — Emerillon de Cayenne, Burr, i., 291, pi. enl. 

 No. 444.— Lath, i., 110.* 



As the male and the female of this species difi'er 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 



* We add the following aynonymes : — Falco sparverius. Linn. Si/st. ed. 10, p. 90. 

 — Gmel. Syst. I., p. 284. — Ind. Orn. p. 42. — F. Dominicensis, Gmel. Si/st. i., p. 285. 

 — Little Hawk, Catesbt, i., p. 5. — V Emerillon de la Caroline, BRiss.Ocre. I., p. 386. 

 V Emerillon de St. Domingue, Id. p. 389. — Tinnunculus uparverius, Yieil. Ou. de 

 UAm. Sept. p. 12-13. 



