NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXII. 191S. lid 



It. runs as follon's : " Above, cinereous black, immaculate ; lieiieatli, fnlvons 

 white, striped with blackish ; wings as long as the tail ; feet very large ; middle 

 toe and claw much longer than the tarsus." 



"Form and structure of F. cuctiUatus. Total length near 10 in. ; wings l'2i; 

 tail, base 7 ; tarsus l/^ : middle toe 2 ; the claw ^'u ! total ^xij. A perfectly adnlt 

 bird. The stripes beneath are dark and well defined ; and there is no detached 

 maxillary stripe. The ground of the under plumage is cream-colour ; the inner 

 covers with broad transverse bands, leaving cream-coloured spots between ; the 

 bill and feet are very large ; the tail short, and nearly even." 



Is this undoubtedly the Australian Peregrine ? If so, the name macropus 

 must replace the well-knowu mdanogemjs, as Mr. Mathews discovered that 

 Swainson's work appeared three months before that of Gould I " Unfortunate 

 discovery " P. L. Sclater would have saitl. 



Mr. Mathews {AuMrcd Ariau ReeorJ, i. p. 33) separated another Australian 

 Falcon under the name of Falco peregrinus submelanogenys. His diagnosis is: 

 " Differs from F. p. melanoffeio/x in its much more rufous nnder-snrface and larger 

 size." " Type, South-west Australia, No. 4489." Such a diagnosis is ne.\t to 

 useless ; nothing is said about the dimensions, nothing of the number of specimens 

 compared, whether they were adult or not. Had Mr. Mathews been acquainted 

 with the colour-variations of all forms of Peregrine Falcons he would probably 

 not have created this new name. We shonld have been thankful for fuller details, 

 which appear to be indispensable iu such a difficult case. 



12. Falco peregrinus pealei Ridgw. 



? Partim ; Falco nigriceps Oassin, 111. B. Californici, Texas, etc., " 1856," p. 87 (1853— California to 



Chile). 

 Falco communiii var. jimlei Ridgway, Bull. Essex Inst. v. p. 201 (December 1873 — Oregou). 

 ? Falco rmlolfi Kleinschmidt, Falco v. p. 19 (1909— Hakodadi, North Japan). 



Very much like /'. p. peregrinus and anatum, but the crown and nape are 

 not so blackish, more slate, the throat and breast have generally black shaft-lines 

 and often tear-shaped longitudinal marks, also frequently hidden basal cross-bars or 

 irregular cross-markings. Tail mostly very dark, rump widely barred. Young 

 birds are very dark ; the feathers of the npperside have no rusty-brown edges, even 

 when in fresh i)lumage ; the nnder-surface has very deep brown and wide stripes, 

 sometimes nearly black. The bill is, as a rule, very powerful. 



The distribution is peculiar : according to the ^4. 0. U. Check-list it inhabits 

 the Pacific coast region of North America, from the Commander and Aleutian 

 Islands to Oregon, breeding throughout its range. According to Stejneger's careful 

 researches {Ties. Orn. Expl. Commander Ishttuls and Kamtscliutha, 1885, p. 200), 

 one of the birds which he collected on Bering Island agrees perfectly with the type 

 of /■'. p. pealei. In the Tring Museum are a jiair of adnlt birds, the female with bare 

 incubating-patches, shot on May 11 on Dionisio Island, Vulcan Group, south of 

 Hondo (Japan) ; these birds agree, I think, in every way with F. p. penlei. Their 

 beaks are very powerful, the sides of the head very black, the white indentation 

 behind the black cheek-stripes are very short, the crown is slate-coloured, sides 

 ashy grey (a little lighter iu the ? ). Wings: i 318, ? 307 mm. The type 

 ni Falco rudolji (knowing that it is a Peregrine our friend might have indicated this 

 in his name by trinomials) appears to agree perfectly with our female from Dionisio 



