BIRDS OF ETHIOPIA AND KENYA COLONY 



101 



typical, southern race is supposed to have wings of from 124r-131 

 millimeters, yet the two South African birds examined have wings 

 of 119 and 122 millimeters, respectively (and they are both females 

 and should therefore be at the higher rather than the lower size 

 limit). Appended is a table of measurements of all the material 

 examined. It seems to indicate that size has no constant geo- 

 graphical significance in this falcon and it necessarily follows that 

 races based on size characters can not be maintained. 



It may be noted at this point that Reichenow -^ gives the wing 

 measurements of the male of this species as 210-228 millimeters, 

 obviously a misprint, intended to read 110-128 millimeters. 



The races semitorquatus and castanonotus meet in Kenya Colony. 

 The latter is smaller than the former, but seems to increase in size 

 (average) as it goes north, approximating the size of homopterus. 

 The difficulty with homopterus and deckeni seems to be that long 

 series are not available, but judging from their respective limits of 

 size variation it ap)pears as though sufficient series would sink them 

 into the synonymy of castanonotus,, even though they may look quite 

 distinct when only a few extremes of each are examined. 



Young birds molting into adult plumage may be told from fully 

 adult individuals even after the former have attained the general 

 coloration of the latter, by the fact that th6 former have the white 



^Vogol Afrikas, vol. 1, 1900. p. 64G. 



