FALCONIDiE. 31 



sometimes affinities ; but as the fact has hitherto not been clearly observed, so the 

 principle of this variation remains to be discovered. It is generally seen in aberrant 

 groups ; although not unfrequently, as in this instance, in such as are strictly typical. 

 To cite another instance, we may remark, that in the superb collection of Indian birds 

 at the Royal Museum of Paris, are several skins of Timalia pileata, Horsf., from 

 Sumatra and Java ; of which some have the bill perfectly entire, some slightly, and 

 others distinctly notched ; all, apparently, being old birds, full plumaged, and not 

 differing in the slightest degree in other respects. It will subsequently be seen 

 that this species stands in a group where the bill is either notched or entire *. — Sw. 



[9 ] 3. Falco sparverius. (Linn.) Little Busty-crowned Falcon. 



Genus. Falco. Linn. Auctohum. 



Little Falcon. Penh. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 211, No. 110. 



Falco sparverius. Lath. Ind., i., p. 42, sp. 99. 



American Sparrow-hawk. (F. sparverius.) Wilson, ii., p. 117, pi. 16',] f. 1. Female; and iv., p. 



57, pi- 32, f. 2. Male. 

 Falco sparverius Buonap. Syn., p. 27, No. 10. Vigors. Zool. Journ., No. xi., pp. 425, 435. 

 Peepeekeeshees. Cree Indians. 



Plate xxiv. Male. 



Prince Charles Buonaparte has separated the small American Falcons from the 

 larger kinds, characterising the group by wings shorter than the tail, and scu- 

 tellated tarsi. The latter character is only partially correct ; for, in F. sparverius, 

 there are but three shield-formed transverse scales on the tarsus adjoining to the 

 toes, the rest of it being covered anteriorly by two rows of scales in alternate order, 

 forming a near approach to reticulation. In F. cesalon the tarsus is still more reti- 

 culated, but it also is furnished with three shield-formed scales on its lower extre- 

 mity. The group, however, seems to be a natural one, the birds composing it 

 differing somewhat in their manners from the larger Falcons, and having analogies 

 in their habits with the Shrikes. The three small American Falcons that came 

 under our notice agree in having long tails, and in the first quill feather being a 

 little shorter than the fourth, or, at most, only equal to it, — both being consider- 

 ably shorter than the second, which, again, scarcely exceeds the third one. The 

 rapidity with which the quill feathers decrease in length after the fourth, still ren- 

 ders the wings pointed, yet not so much so as in the two larger species which we 



* The whole of the groups in this family require a thorough revision, not in the library, but in the museum ; and 

 until this is done, it is impossible to make full use of the distinction pointed out by Baron Cuvier, or to understand its 

 bearings. — Sw. 



