FALCONID^ — DIURNAL RAPTOHES. 433 



It is extremely uncertain how many of the so-called "species" 

 of Peregrine Falcon which pass current should be referred to F. 

 fferegrinus as geographical races, and it is equally doubtful bow 

 many of the latter should be recognized. I have yet to see a 

 North American Peregrine which I could not distinguish readily 

 from European examples, the chest being usually either immaculate 

 or else very inconspicuously streaked in the American b^'d; but 

 European writers say that they have inspected American specimens 

 which had the breast as distinctly streaked as those from Europe. 

 It is possible, however, that their remarks are based upon specimens 

 of F. pealei, which has the chest so heavily marked as to be 

 sometimes even spotted, and which differs so much from tyi^ical 

 peregrinus that it may eventually prove to be a distinct species, 

 though I am inchned to regard it as one of several geographical 

 races of a widely distributed parent stock, to wliich I would also 

 refer F. cassini Sharpe, of the southern extremity of South America. 



In the adult plumage the principal variation is in the extent and 

 disposition of the bars beneath. In most individuals they are reg- 

 ularly transverse only laterally and posteriorly, those on the belly 

 being somewhat broken into more irregTilar cordate spots, though 

 always transverse ; in no American specimen that I have seen, are 

 they as continuously transverse as in a male (No. 18,804) from 

 Europe, which, however, in this respect, may form an exception to 

 most European examples. 



Very old males (as 49,790, Fort Yukon; 27,188, Moose Factory, 

 (type of Elliott's figure of F. peregrinus, in Birds of America) ; and 

 42,997, Spanishtown, Jamaica) lack almost entirely the reddish tinge 

 beneath, and have the posterior portions strongly tinged with blue. 



The fact that this noble bird breeds in hollow trees in various 

 parts of the iVIississippi Valley is a comparatively recent discovery, 

 being first announced by Col. N. S. Goss in the "Nuttall Bulletin" 

 for January, 1878. 



In the spring of 1878, the writer found several pairs nesting in 

 sycamore trees in the neighborhood of Mt. Carmel. Tlnee nests 

 were found in the immediate vicinity of the town. All were 

 placed in cavities in the top of very large sycamore trees, and 

 were inaccessible. One of these trees was felled, however, and 

 measurements with a tape-hne showed the nest to have been eighty- 



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