296 falcoxid.t;. 



are fairly glossy. Three specimens are of a yellowish-buff colour, 

 densely speckled and mottled with rich brown all over. One is 

 buif, mottled and smeared with reddish brown. Thev measure 

 respectively: 2 by 1-51 ; 1-93 by 148 ; 2-08 by 1-5; 1-9 by 1-47. 



1. New Zealand. Crowley Bequest. 



3. New Zealand {Field Coll.). Crowley Bequest. 



Harpa australis {Homhr. ^' Jacq.). 



Harpa australis, Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. M. i. p. 373 (1874) ; id. Hand-l. 



i. p. 273 (1899). 

 Harpa ferox, Buller, Birds New Zeal. 2nd ed. i. p. 220 (1888). 



The sole egg of the Small New-Zealand Falcon in the Collection 

 is of a very regular oval shape and slightly glossy. It is pale buflF, 

 densely spotted and smeared with rich reddish brown. It measures 

 1-78 by 1-35. 



1. New Zealand (Fidd Coll.). Crowley Bequest. 



Genus FALCO, Linn. 



The eggs of the Falcons vary from a broad oval to an elliptical 

 or spheroidal shape. The shell is generally devoid of gloss, but a 

 certain number of specimens in every large series exhibit a slight 

 amount. 



Falco peregrinus, Tunst. 



Falco gentilis, Thien. Furtpjlanz. yes. Toy. tab. ii. fig. 1, a-e (184o-o4). 

 Falco communis, Baedeker, Eier Eur. Toy. tab. 2(3. fig. 1 (1856-63) ; 



Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. M. i. p. 376 (1874) : Baird , Bre^ver ^- Bidyiv. 



N. Amer. Birds, iii. p. 132 (1874) ; Tacz. Faime Orn. Siber. Orient. 



i. pt. i. p. 77 (1891). 

 Fako jjeregrinus, Hetvitson, Eyys of Brit. Birds, i. p. 24, pi. viii. (1856) ; 



Seebohm i^- Ifarr/e-Broicn, Ibis, 1876, p. 110; Dresser, Birds Eur. 



vi. p. 31 (1876) ; Seebohm, Ibis, 1878, p. 323 ; id. Brit. Birds, i. 



p. 23, pi. 3 (1883) ; id. Eyys of Brit. Birds, p. 4, pi. 3. fig. 1 (1896) ; 



Sharpe, Hand-l. i. p. 273 (18'J9). 

 Falco peregrinus anatum. Nelson, Bepurt Nat. Hist. Alaska, p. 147 



(1887) ; Bendire. Life-Hist. N. Amer. Birds, i. p. 292, pi. x. figs. 5-7 



(1892). 



The eggs of the Peregrine Falcon vary from cream -colour to 

 pinkish buff and deep brownish red. The majority are densely 

 marked with spots, blotches, and smears, more or less confluent, of 

 vaiious shades of reddish brown and, less frequently, yellowish brown, 

 while in many specimens a very small extent only of the ground- 

 colour remains visible. Some eggs are marked with rather well- 

 defined spots and blotches, chiefly on the larger half. On some of 

 the richer-coloured (examples a few small markings of intensely 

 deep blackish brown may be observed. A series of eggs measures 

 from i"8.") to 2- 1-3 in length, and from 1'48 to TTo in breadth. 



