206 



ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



92. Falco pealei Ridgw. 



1854. — Falco polyagrus Cass., Illustr., )>1. 16 (dark lignn?!). 



1673. — Falco communis var. j;eaZti.RiDGW., BulL Essex lust., V, 1873, p. 2(31. 



187A.— Falco gyrfalco RiDGW., Am. Nat. VIII, 1874, p. 434 (jiec LiN.).— Dall., Avif. 



Aleut. Isl. west Unal., p. 3 (1871). 

 1881. — Falco peregrinu$ pfalei Ridgw., Noniencl. N. A. Birds, p. 37. — Id., Ibis, 1882, p. 



297 (foot-note).— Nelson, Cruise Corwin, p. 78 (1883).— Turner, Auk, 1885, 



p. 157. 



List of specimei s obtained. 



No. 92726. — Iris dark brown. Bill with the terminal halt' bluish gray, darkening toward the tip and 

 tooth, behind fading into the light yellowiah gray color of the basal half; cere bright yellow ; naked 

 eye-ring pale yellow. Ft-ct vivid golden yellow ; claws blackish gray. Stomach contained feathers Of 

 a sea bird. Extremely lean, probably resulting from an old shot wound. Weight, 2J pounds. New 

 feathers in the sheaths protruding all over the body. 



No. 92724.— Bill bluish white. Culmen, tip, and tooth horny bluish black ; cere and naked eye-ring 

 yellow. Feet yellow ; claws black. 



No. 92723. — Iris dark brown. Bill, cere, and naked eye-riug very light bluish gray with a faint yel- 

 lowish tinge ; terminal half of culmen and of npper tomia, including the tooth, as also the tip of lower 

 mandible, horny blackish blue. Feet pale straw yellow with a faint greenish tinge; claws homy 

 black. Stomach containing a few feathers only ; in the crop a piece of meat. Very fat. Weight, 3| 

 pounds. 



The '•'•Tschornij Jmtrip^^ {i. e., Black Hawk), as the natives call the 

 present bird in Russian, or ^^Agulelh,''^ as they name it in Aleutian, is 

 a common resident of both islands, breeding in high and inaccessible 

 cliffs. 



Peale's Falcon, first described by Mr. Ridgway in 1873, seems to 

 form a constant and well-circumscribed offshoot from the peregrinus 

 stock, the constancy of its characters securing for it the title of species 

 and the benefit of a binominal only. 



All the specimens of this form which I have seen are remarkably uni- 

 form, both in the adult and the young plumage. The two adult females 

 which I procured are in every respect counterparts of the typical female 

 (U. S. T^at. Mus. No. 63413) described by' Mr. Ridgway in " The Ibis," 

 1882, p, 297 (foot-note). The adult male has not been described, as far 



