IIAPTORES. 25 



and as affording another proof of the beautiful analogies which 

 exist between certain groups of the southern and northern 

 hemispheres, — this bird being as clearly a representative of the 

 Jerfalcon of Europe as the ¥alco melanoge^iifs is of the Pere- 

 grine, and the Falco front atus oi Wiq Hobby. 



" The adult has the whole of the upper and under surface 

 and wings grey, with a narrow line of black down the centre 

 of each feather ; a narrow ring of black nearly surrounding 

 the eyes ; primaries brownish black, which colour assumes a 

 pectinated form on a mottled-grey ground on the inner webs 

 of those feathers ; tail-coverts grey, barred with brownish 

 grey; tail dark brownish grey, crossed with bars of dark brown; 

 irides dark brown ; cere, orbits, gape, base of the bill, legs and 

 feet brilliant orange-yellow, the yellow becoming paler from 

 the base of the bill until it me6ts the black of the tips. 



"Total length of female, 17 inches; bill, Ij; wing, 12^; 

 tail, 7 1 ; tarsi. If. 



" The young birds have the upper surface mottled brown 

 and grey, and the under surface nearly white, and more 

 strongly marked with black than in the adult." — Birds of 

 Australia, fob, vol. i. p. at pi. 7. 



Although a quarter of a century has elapsed since I first had 

 the pleasure of characterizing this species by giving the above 

 name to a young female then in my possession, little or no 

 additional information has been obtained respecting the extent 

 of the range of the bird, and still less about its habits and 

 economy. In the folio edition of the ' Birds of Australia ' I 

 stated that four specimens were all that were then known ; in 

 the lengthened interval which has since elapsed, about the same 

 number, and not more, have come under my notice ; it nuist 

 therefore still be considered as one of the rarities of the avi- 

 fauna of Australia. When comparing this species with the 

 Falcons of the northern hemisphere, F. candicans, F. islandicus, 

 and F. (jyrfalco, I have omitted to mention that, however iden- 

 tically typical in form it may be, and however similar in struc- 



