Bill light brown, tinged with blue. Iris hazel. Feet yellowish-brown. 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.
LE PETIT CAPORAL.
Falco temerarius.
PLATE LXXV.
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 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.