FALCON. ?'5 



23— SPOTTED FALCON. 



Falco versicolor, 77i(f. Onj.i. 33. Gin. LiiiA. 2T2. i)uurf. 4, 105. Tern. Man. d'Orn. 

 p.2r. 



Spotted Falcon, Gen. 5yn.i. p. 74. Br. Zoo/, i. pi. 26. /rf. ^cf. 1812, pi. 25. Lewin. 

 i. pi. 13. Shaw's Zool. vii. 127. Orn. Diet, i,- Sup. 



SIZE of a buzzard ; bill black ; cere and irides yellow ; crown 

 and hind part of the neck white, spotted with light reddish brown ; 

 back and scapulars the same, edged with white ; quills dusky, barred 

 with ash colour ; beneath the body white, with a few rusty spots on 

 the neck and breast ; rump white ; tail barred with lighter and 

 darker brown ; legs strong. 



This has twice been shot in Shropshire— but is not uncommon 

 in America, as Mr. Abbot ranks it among the birds frequenting 

 Georgia. He says, it equals in size the barred-breasted Buzzard, and 

 i»bser\'es, that the lesser wing coverts are marked with white, most so 

 on the inner webs, the ends brown, and when the feathers lie smooth 

 no white appears ; the young male has a great proportion of white. 



The female does not greatly differ — the rump ^vhite ; tail light 

 brown, with nine darker bars, and a white tip ; under part of the 

 tail white, but only four or five pale dusky bai's visible. 



The food is the same as that of the barred -breasted, also locusts 

 and grasshoppers. Mr. Abbot adds, that the Hawks retire into the 

 tluck woods and swamps to breed, but after they Ijiing out their 

 young, are destructive to fowls and chickens — are most frequent the 

 first of winter, sunning themselves on the tops of dead trees in frosty 

 mornings. Daudin supposes this to be a variety of the Common 

 Falcon, but Col. Montagu, with greater probability, thinks it 

 allied to the Jerfalcon. 



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