57 



AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. 

 FALCO SPAEVElilUS, 

 [Plate XXXII.— Fig. % Male.] 



Little Hawk, Arct. Zool. 211, M. UO. — Emerilloyi de Cayenne, Bupf. I, 291. PL enl No. 

 444. — Lath. I, 110.— Pe ale's Museum, No. 340. 



THE female of this species has been already figured and de- 

 scribed in vol. II, of this work. As they differ considerably in the 

 markings of their plumage, the male is introduced here, 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 is 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 sur- 

 round 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 parts of the same tint, each 

 feather being streaked down the center with a long black drop, those 

 on the breast slender, on the sides larger; upper part of the back 

 and scapulars deep reddish bay, marked with ten or twelve trans- 

 verse waves of black; whole wing-coverts and ends of the seconda- 

 ries bright slate, spotted with black; primaries and upper half of the 

 secondaries black, tipt with white, and spotted on their inner vanes 

 with the same ; lower part of the back, the rump and tail coverts 

 plain bright bay; tail rounded, the two exterior feathers white, their 

 inner vanes beautifully spotted with black; the next bright bay with 



VOL. IV. p 



