178 



NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXII. 1915. 



(J ad. 320-340, ? ad. 303-375, according to Neumann, in lift., even SsS is a 

 specimen in the Berlin Mnseum. 



This is the troiiical representative of 7-''. b. tani/ptenis and erlangeri in Africa. 

 It is fonnd in the monntains of Abyssinia, from Eritrea and Shoa to the GaUa 

 conntries ; it occurs on tlie Bine and White Nile, and probably thronghont the 

 Sndan, in suitable localities, to Nigeria, and j)robably also to Senegambia. There 

 are three specimens from Togo in the Berlin Mnseam ; one of these is an adnlt 

 female, and very pale ; though its colour is abont as pale as in some specimens of 

 F. b. eiiaiKjp.ri, there is no doubt that it must belong to (ibi/asi/iiotfi, because the 

 latter is not rare in Hausaland ; the other two examples are young birds and 

 therefore not very enlightening. That these birds are palaearctic erlangeri is not 

 to be supposed ; Reichenow's idea that /■'. b. tani/pterus—7\.t that time erlangeri was 

 not yet separated — strayed on migration from the Mediterranean conntries into 

 tropical Africa is unjustified, because all these Fah'ons are residents and not at all 

 migratory ; in fact, they seem generally to inliabit nitlier limited areas thronghont 

 the year, only F. b.feldeggi seems to stray about a little more, though it is not a 

 real migrant either. 



Lorenzo Poggiolini sent us the following sjieciniens from Nigeria : 



? ad. Zaria, Hausaland, 0. x. lOl'J ; in beautiful fresh jdnmage, outer primaries 

 not fully grown. 



? ad. Zaria. 0. xi. 1912. In full plumage. 



S ad. Kaduna Kiver, province of Zaria; no date ; wings and some of the body 

 feathers still growing. 



These birds inhabit the isolated, steep, rocky hills which are fonnd here and 

 there in Northern Hausaland; it was doubtless these Falcons which I saw in 1883 

 on the rocks of Kotorkoshi, in the province of Samfara, and not " F. barbarus," as I 

 suspected then ; unfortunately I was then unable to shoot any of these birds, for 

 we were travelling and could not make unnecessary stops ; my ammunition, after 

 the loss of the bulk of it on the Niger, was scarce, and the malaria had so weakened 

 me that I was not good for long tramps and rock-climbing after a day's inarch. 



3. Falco biarmicus tanypterus Schleg. 



Falco tanyptenis Schlegel, Kril. Uehers. ii. p. 11 (1844 — "Nubien und Abys.sinien." Thus 

 "partim!"); id. Ahh. Gfb. ZnoJ. ii. rfrijl. Anal., 2. Heft, iii. pp. 8, IC, pi. xii, xiii. — 

 " Xubien." 



Synonyms are Falco lannrius alplianel Schlegel, and Frtlm Imiariiia nuhictis Schlegel. Cf. Viig. jial. 

 Fauna, p. 1056. 



Not so dark on the upperside as F. b. abgssinicus, also generally paler under- 

 neath. Dimensions similar. This form has been well described and figured by 

 Schlegel, though he changed its name afterwards. 



The plate xii. (see above) is taken from the specimen no. 998 in the Berlin 

 Museum, plate xiii., either from a Leiden example or from no. 1002 in Berlin. Both 

 the Berlin specimens were collected by Hemprich and Ehreiiberg. Other specimens 

 from Upper Egypt and Nubia, collected by Brehm, Koeiiig, and others, agree fully 

 with the above. 



This fine Falcon appears to be less widely spread than its allies, though it 

 ranges from Egypt and Nubia to Arabia, Palestine, and Fao on the Persian Gulf. 

 In collections it is therefore now probably the rarest, since so many collections have 

 been made in many parts of tropical Africa and in Africa Minor. In Brehm's 



