Plate CXLII. Male and Female.
Male with the upper part of the head and wing-coverts light
greyish-blue, seven black spots round the head, and a light red patch
on the crown; back light red, spotted with black; tail red, with a
broad subterminal black band. Female with the head nearly as in the
male, the back, wing-coverts, and tail, banded with light red and
dusky. Young similar to the female, but with more red on the head,
which is streaked with dusky.
_Male_, 12. _Female_, 12.
Generally distributed. Resident in the south. Abundant.
American Sparrow-Hawk, Falco sparverius, Wils. Amer. Orn. v.
ii. p. 117.
Falco sparverius, Bonap. Syn. p. 27.
American sparrow-hawk, Falco sparverius, Nutt. Man. v. i. p.
58.
Falco sparverius, Little Rusty-crowned Falcon, Swains. & Rich.
F. Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 31.
American Sparrow-Hawk, Falco sparverius, Aud. Orn. Biog. v.
ii. p. 246; v. v. p. 370.
GENUS X. ASTUR, Cuv. HAWK.
Bill short, robust; its upper outline sloping, and nearly straight at
the base, then decurved; cere short, bare above; edge of upper
mandible with a festoon, succeeded by a broad sinus. Nostrils
elliptical. Feet of moderate length; tarsi moderate or slender,
feathered at least one-third of their length, broadly scutellate
before and behind; first and second toes strongest and equal, third
much longer, and connected at the base by a web with the third, which
is shortest; claws long, well curved, acuminate. Wings very broad, of
moderate length, much rounded, fourth and fifth quills longest, first
much shorter, outer four abruptly cut out on the inner web. Tail long,
much exceeding the wings, rounded.
Those of more slender form, with proportionally longer tails and
tarsi, are separated by many authors to form a group, to which the
name of _Accipiter_ and _Nisus_ are given.