FALCONS AND CARACARAS: APLOMADO FALCON 191 
Additional Literature.—Brewster, William, Bull. Comp. Zool., Harvard 
College, LXVI, 349-355, 1925.— Dixon, Joseph, Condor, X, 198-200, 1908 (young). 
—Richards, V. F., Auk, XXXVI, 349-350, 1919 (young).— Tyler, J. C., Pacific 
Coast Avifauna No. 9, 44-46, October 1, 1913. 
APLOMADO FALCON: Falco fusco-coerulescens septentrionalis Todd 
Plate 9 
Description. — Male: Length about 15 inches, wing 9.2-10.7, tail 6.3-8, bill 
.6-.7, tarsus 1.7-1.8. Female: Length 17-18 inches, wing 11-11.6, tail 7.8-8.8, bill 
.7-.8, tarsus 1.8-2, Wing with 1st and 2d quills cut out on inner webs; 2d and 3d 
sinuate on outer webs. Adults: Upper parts plain bluish or leaden gray; side of head 
black with a broad white or tawny postocular stripe, becoming orange brown on nape; 
tail tipped with white and crossed by about eight narrow white bands; wing with one 
white band, primaries and secondaries barred; throat and chest white; sides and 
variable abdominal band blackish, barred with white. Young: Similar, but upper- 
parts dark brown and breast striped with blackish. 
Range. —Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Texas south through Central 
America to Argentina. 
State Records. —The Aplomado Falcon was added to the fauna of the United 
States by Dr. A. L. Heermann who took a fine adult in southwestern New Mexico in 
1853. No date has been given for the capture, but Lieut. Park’s party, to which 
Heermann was attached, entered New Mexico on March 4 and reached the Rio 
Grande March 12, so that the specimen must have been taken between these dates. 
A pair was seen June 2, 1886, near Hachita (Anthony); one was taken April 9, 1892, 
at Lake Palomas just south of the New Mexico boundary (Mearns); one was secured 
July 15, 1908, at Hachita, and another one seen August 21, 1908, near the Old 
Hatchet Ranch in the Playas Valley (Goldman). A nest containing feathered young 
was found June 17, 1909, 10 miles east of Rincon, and several other nests in the adja¬ 
cent Jornada during this and the preceding year (Ligon). [At 25 miles north of Engle, 
two were seen, August 27, 1917, and 10 miles northeast of Engle, one seen, December 
23, 1918 (Ligon); 20 miles southeast of Silver City one was seen September 22, 1918, 
and 30 miles southeast on an irrigation pond of the Rio Mimbres, one was taken May 
25, 1919, and at Separ, Grant County, three were taken, June 15, 1924 (Kellogg).] 
It is thus seen that the species in New Mexico is confined to the southwestern part 
of the State and it probably does not remain here through the coldest part of the 
winter.—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —In mesquite, yucca, or cactus, a jjlatform of twigs and plant stalks, 
usually lined with grass. Eggs: Generally 3, white, variably dotted with light brown 
and overlaid with blotches of dark brown. 
Food. —Small reptiles, mice and other rodents, dragon flies, grasshoppers, and 
other insects, seeds, and an occasional bird. 
General Habits. —A tropical species, the Aplomado Falcon comes 
north with the yucca, mesquite, and cactus plains of the Southwest, but 
one individual has been reported in the State in December, when the 
ground was covered with snow and it was very cold. On rare occasions 
it is seen about Brownsville, Texas, and it is quite common between 
Brownsville and Point Isabel, Texas, among the tree yuccas of a sandy 
ridge where locusts, lizards, and snakes abound. Like the Sparrow 
