90 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Voj. Astrolabe et Zelee, Ois. Plate 1, fig. 1. 



A species which appears to be peculiar to the Island of New Zealand, 

 and to which naturalists have applied various names. Though belong- 

 ing to the restricted group of typical falcons, it presents characters 

 different from those of the northern genera, and has been properly re- 

 garded as the type of a distinct genus. 



Mr. Peale's note relating to this bird is : " At the Bay of Islands, 

 New Zealand, we found several interesting birds, and amongst them 

 this graceful falcon. It flew with great vigor, and appeared to create 

 great terror in all the little birds of the neighborhood. When alighting 

 on the branch of a tree, it had the habit of jutting its tail, like the 

 sparrow hawk of North America {F. sparverim)." 



4. Genus ACCIPITER, Brisson, Orn. I, p. 310 (1760). 

 1. ACCIPITER EUFITORQUES [Peole) . 

 Astur rvjiforques, Peale, Zool. U. S. Exp. Exp. Birds, p. 68 (1848). 



Atlas, Ornithology, Plate II, fig. 1, adult male ; fig. 2, young 

 female. 



A. supra totiis coerulescente-cinereus, gutture aJho, wfra jxiUide fusees- 

 cenii-ruher, immaculatus. Remiges et rectrices coerulescente-cinerei, 

 iectrices inferiores alarum caudaque alhi. Long. 12 j^oU ices. 



breast and belly striped and spotted with brown, on a reddisli-buif ground; vent bufif, 

 striped with brown; thighs and under tail-coverts ferruginous; the centre of each feather 

 shaded with a dark sepia line along the shaft ; primaries and tail beneath plumbeous, 

 barred with white, and having the shafts white beneath, and black on the upper surface; 

 third quill longest; first and fifth equal; small under coverts buif color, with brown 

 centres ; tail rounded, composed of twelve feathers, the shafts of which are dark-brown 

 above, dusky-white beneath ; the light bars broadest and most conspicuous near the body, 

 and becoming less conspicuous towards the extremity of the tail; cere and feet pale-blue ; 

 irides brown. 



"Total length fourteen and a half inches ; wing, from the flexure or carpal joint, 

 nine inches; tail six inches; bill eight-tenths of an inch; tarsi two and one-tenth 

 inches." 



