380 INDIGO BIRD.
Adult Female. Plate LXXIV. Fig. 4.
Bill light brown, tinged with blue. Iris hazel. Feet yellowishbrown.
The general colour is light yellowish-brown, the under parts
and the sides of the head lighter ; the wings deep brown, margined with
lighter. The female is also considerably smaller.
THE WILD SARSAPARILLA.
SCHISANDRA COCCINEA, Mich. Flor. Amer. vol. ii. p. 218. Pursh, Flor. Amer. vol i.
p. 212.—PENTANDRIA POLYGYNIA, Linn.
A climbing shrubby plant, distinguished by its carmine-coloured
flowers, consisting of nine sepals; its numerous, one-seeded berries, and
elliptico-lanceolate leaves, acute at both ends, and supported upon a long
petiole.
L E P E T I T C A P O R A L.
FALCO TEMERARIUS.
P L A T E L X X X V .
THIS beautiful little Hawk appears to be nearly allied to the
European Hobby (Falco Subbuteo, LINN. ) , and is not inferior to that
species in spirit and activity. I procured the individual represented, in
April 1812, near Fatland Ford in Pennsylvania, whilst in pursuit of a
Dove, which it would doubtless have secured, had I not terminated its
career. When I first discovered this species, the individual was standing
perched on an old fence-stake, in the position in which it is figured.
Never having met with another of the kind, I conclude that it is extremely
rare in the United States. Of its nest or young I am unable to
say any thing at present.
The name which I have given to this new and rare species was
chosen at the time when NAPOLEON LE GRAND was in the zenith of his
glory. Every body knows that his soldiers frequently designated him
by the nickname of Le Petit Caporal, which I thought more suitable to
to our little Hawk, than the names NAPOLEON or BONAPARTE, which I
should have adopted, had I been so fortunate as to procure a new Eagle.
FALCO TEMERARIUS.
Plate LXXV.
Bill short, as broad as deep at the base, compressed towards the end,
the dorsal outline convex from the base ; upper mandible cerate, with the
edges acute, slightly inflected, and forming a sharp projecting process on
each side, the tip trigonal, acute, descending ; lower mandible inflected at
the edges, with a notch near the end on each side, abrupt at the tip.
Nostrils roundish, with a central tubercle, perforated in the cere. Head
rather large, neck short, body robust. Legs of ordinary length ; tarsus
scutellate before and behind ; toes scutellate above, scaly on the sides,
scabrous and tuberculate beneath ; middle toe much longer than the