316 FALCO VESPERTINUS. 



black, the inner edges and tips buffy white ; the tail-feathers 

 dark-brown, with numerous transverse bars of reddish-brown ; 

 throat white ; sides of the neck, the breast, and all the under 

 surface of the body, pale reddish-white, with brown longitu- 

 dinal streaks and patches on the breast ; the thighs and their 

 long feathers uniform pale ferruginous ; beak, cere, irides, and 

 other bare parts as in the adult female." 



Remarks. — In form this species is very intimately allied to 

 the Hobby, which it also resembles in the reddish colour of the 

 tibial and subcaudal feathers. It is proportionally somewhat 

 more slender, and has the claws smaller, while some slight 

 differences in the scales of the tarsus are also observed. The 

 bird to which the adult male approaches most nearly in colour 

 is Harpagus diodon, in which the festoon of the bill is pro- 

 longed into a second toothlike process, and the wings shorter. 

 In respect to colour, it is also nearly allied to Falco plumbeus. 

 The specimens from which I have taken the descriptions of the 

 adult male and female, are from the Continent. 



