National Museum, 104; Boston Society, 26; Philadelphia Academy, 7; Mus.
Comp. Zoöl., 66; New York Museum, 7; Cab. G. N. Lawrence, 4; Cab. R.
Ridgway, 4. Total, 218.
_Measurements._
+----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+
|Sex.| Wing. | Tail. | Culmen. | Tarsus. |Middle Toe.|Specimens.|
+----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+
| ♂ | 6.50–8.00| 4.50–5.70| .50–.00|1.25–1.55| .95–0.00| 117 |
+----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+
| ♀ | 6.80–8.40| 4.90–5.80| .55–.55|1.40–1.45| .90–1.00| 95 |
+----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+
Var. isabellinus, SWAINSON.
_Falco isabellinus_, SWAINSON, An. Menag. p. 281, 1838. _Tinnunculus
sparverius_, var. _isabellinus_, RIDGWAY, P. A. N. S. Phil. Dec. 1870,
p. 149. _Tinnunculus dominicensis_ (not of GMEL.!), STRICKL. Orn. Syn.
1, 100, 1855 (in part only).
SP. CHAR. _Adult male_ (3,841, Prairie Mer Rouge, La., June, 1853;
“J. F.”). Much like var. _sparverius_, but considerably darker in
colors; plumbeous, crown dark with no rufous on vertex, nor darker
shaft-lines. Rufous above more purplish-castaneous; cinereous of wings
much darker; neck, jugulum, breast, and sides deep soft ochraceous,
spots very few, and restricted to the sides. Wing, 7.00; tail, 4.70;
tarsus, 1.25; middle toe, .90; culmen, .50. Wing-formula, 2, 3–4, 1.
_Adult female_ (58,339, Jacksonville, Fla., June 10, 1869; C. J.
Maynard). Differing from the female of var. _sparverius_ in much darker
colors, the rufous inclining to castaneous; bars broader, more sharply
defined, pure black. Head above pure dark plumbeous, conspicuously
different from the fine light ash of var. _sparverius_; vertex with
touches only of rufous; markings beneath narrower, and nearly pure
black, upon a deeper ochraceous ground. Wing, 7.20; tail, 4.50; tarsus,
1.20; middle toe, .83; culmen, .42. Primaries, 2, 3–1, 4.
HAB. North Atlantic and Caribbean coasts of South America, from Demerara
northward, along the Gulf coast of Mexico and United States, through
Texas and Louisiana to Florida.
This form, though quite different in its extreme condition from true
_sparverius_, gradually grades into it. Few, if any, other specimens
possess in so exaggerated a degree all the distinctive characters of
those described, though all from the regions indicated agree in having
darker colors and less rufous on the crown than specimens from the
interior of North and Middle America.
A series of six adult male Sparrow Hawks from Florida, kindly loaned me
for examination by Mr. J. A. Allen, includes three typical examples of
this littoral race of subtropical continental America. They all agree
in very deep dark colors, entire absence or merely slight indication of
rufous on the vertex, and deeply ochraceous breast, with few markings.
No. 14,499 (Miami, Fla., June 19, 1871) is remarkable for lacking
entirely the black spots on wings and flanks, and bars on the back
or longer scapulars; the three outer tail-feathers are almost wholly
ashy-white, with about five transverse spots of black; the terminal
white band is strongly tinged with ash; there is no trace of rufous on
the crown. Wing, 6.80; tail, 4.80.
In the unspotted wings and sides and unbarred scapulars there is a
resemblance in this specimen to _F. leucophrys_; which, however, has the
ash very much lighter, the black “mustache” obsolete or wanting, the
lower breast pure white instead of deep ochraceous; the under surface
of the primaries plain white, with shallow dusky serrations along the
shaft, instead of being heavily barred with dusky; always has a patch
of rufous on the crown, a conspicuous frontal and superciliary stripe
of white, and an entirely differently marked tail. In its much barred
tail it also resembles the var. _dominicensis_ to a slight extent; but
the latter has the middle feathers also barred, and always has the
scapulars, generally the entire dorsal region, heavily barred with
black, and the wings, breast, and sides heavily spotted; the bill is
larger, and there is always more or less rufous on the crown. The other
two specimens are more like the average; they both have a mere trace
of rufous on the crown, conspicuous bars on the scapulars, and spots
on the wings. No. 5,188 (Hibernia, Fla., February 3, 1869) has only a
few black specks on the flanks; the outer tail-feather ashy-white, with
seven transverse black spots across inner web. Wing, 6.80; tail, 4.80.
No. 5,373 (Hawkinsville, Fla., March 12, 1869) is similar, but has the
flanks distinctly spotted with black, and the outer tail-feather with
inner web plain pale rufous, with only the subterminal large black spot.
Wing, 6.80; tail, 4.80.
A series of ten specimens (five males and five females) from Florida,
kindly sent me for examination by Mr. C. J. Maynard, contains nothing
but var. _sparverius_, with a few individuals inclining slightly toward
var. _isabellinus_. The extreme are measurements of the series as
follows: ♂. Wing, 6.60–6.90; tail, 4.50–4.70. ♀. Wing, 6.90–7.50;
tail, 4.80–5.10. Four out of the five males have the deeply ochraceous
unspotted breast of var. _isabellinus_, but all have more or less
rufous on the crown, while the ash is of that light shade seen in var.
_sparverius_. No. 476 has the upper tail-coverts mixed with feathers
which are either wholly or partially ash, while the light bands of the
outer tail-feathers are much tinged with the same; the scapulars are
almost wholly fine ash, like the wings, and with heavy black bars. The
females likewise all incline toward var. _isabellinus_, all having the
dark bars above equal to or broader than the rufous ones. No. 6,441
is transversely spotted on the flanks with heavy black bars, and is
scarcely distinguishable from females of var. _dominicensis_.
An adult male labelled as coming from Cuba, but probably from the
southeastern United States, in the collection of the Boston Society,
is so deeply colored as to strongly resemble the young male of _T.
sparveroides_. There is not a trace of rufous on the crown, which
is dark plumbeous; the lower parts are entirely deep rufous, except
the throat, inclining more to ochraceous on the tibiæ and crissum;
the whole lower surface entirely free from spots of any kind. The
tail is very uniformly marked, being wholly rufous, except the usual
narrow terminal band, or the outer web of lateral feathers, which
are white,—the latter with a few indications of black spots near the
shaft,—and the usual subterminal zone of black, which is very regular
and continuous. Though in these respects so closely resembling the
young ♂ of _T. sparveroides_, it may be distinguished from it by the
sharp definition of the black markings on the side of the head and
on the wing-coverts, and of the black bars on the inner webs of the
primaries. We have every reason to doubt whether this specimen was
actually collected in Cuba, since so many of the specimens in the
Lafresnaye Collection are incorrectly labelled as regards locality.
A young ♂ from Georgia, in the same collection, is somewhat similar, but
differs in the following respects. The rufous beneath is confined to the
breast, sides, and abdomen, but is as deep (i.e. only a shade or two
lighter than that on the back); the two outer pairs of tail-feathers are
mostly ashy-white, with large spots of black.