FALCON. 279 



224— SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. 



Falco dubius, Ind. Orn. i. 44. Gm. Lin. i. 281, Daud. ii. 122. 

 Sharp-shinned Hawk, Falco velox, Am. Orn. v. 116. pi. 45. f. 1 ? 

 Dubious Falcon, Gen. Syn. Sup. 37. Arct. Zool. ii. No. 112. 



THE male of this is 10 in. in length, and weighs six ounces. — 

 Bill dusky ; cere and irides yellow ; head dusky, streaked with rust- 

 colour; back and wing coverts brown, edged with rust; prime quills 

 dusky ash, barred with black ; and within with oval, transverse, 

 ferruginous spots ; breast and belly dirty white, with oblong brown 

 streaks, somewhat in the manner of the Merlin ; tail long, deep 

 cinereous, crossed with four bars of black, resembling that of the 

 Sparrow Hawk ; legs long and slender ; soles of the feet irregular, 

 and I o bated ; claws black. 



The one described in the Amer. Ornith. is, we believe, the female ; 

 said to be 13 in. long, and 25 in. in extent; the colours are less bright, 

 and the bird is larger, as usual in that sex ; but the colour of the 

 plumage does not essentially differ; I observe, however, that the 

 vent and under tail coverts are white, and the tips of all the tail 

 feathers also white. 



Inhabits America; found at New York and Carolina; that men- 

 tioned in the Amer. Ornith. was shot on the banks of Schujlkill, and 

 remarkable for its swiftness in flight — another character also belongs 

 to this species, which is, the sharpness of the insides of the shins, 

 below the knee, imitating the edge of a knife ; it feeds on small 

 birds like many other Hawks, and also a particular kind of Lizard, 

 known in the country by the name of Swift, and which, it is supposed, 

 none other of the Hawk tribe is able to obtain. 



