Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue of Accipitres. 303 



fully adult, aucl, from its size, a female, the sex, however, 

 not having- been recorded by the collector. 



The crown and sides of the head black, with the moustache 

 large and confluent ; the upper interscapulars, and also the 

 lesser and median wing-coverts, black, with very inconspicuous 

 dark slaty-blue edgings ; the greater wing-coverts, the scapu- 

 lars, and the lower part of the back transversely barred with 

 alternate slate-colour and blackish, the tints on all these 

 parts being darker than in an ordinary darkly coloured ex- 

 ample of Falco melanogenys; on the scapular feathers the 

 blackish bars are six in number, with the intermediate spaces 

 and the tips slate-coloured ; the upper tail-coverts are of a 

 paler slate-colour, with four dark transverse bars on each 

 feather, not darker than in a dark F. melanogenys ; the tail with 

 six black transverse bars and a broad subterminal black band, 

 between the black bars six paler interspaces, slate-coloured on 

 the outer, but brownish on the inner, web ; the primaries 

 black, with very narrow brownish edgings, and with ill- 

 defined black transverse bars on the inner webs ; the imder 

 wing-coverts and axillaries transversely barred with black and 

 fulvous white, the latter more inclined to rufous than in an 

 ordinary F. melanogenys ; the throat tinged with rufous ; the 

 region of the crop a very deep and rich rufous, with black 

 shaft-marks, terminating in a guttate form at their lower 

 extremity ; the breast and flanks as fully and regularly cross- 

 barred as in a typical F. melanogenys, but with the dark bars 

 on a few feathers at the centre of the breast broken into 

 spots, the dark transverse bars on these parts black, and the 

 paler interspaces rufous, of the same hue as the crop, but 

 slightly tinged with grey, especially on the flanks ; the abdo- 

 men, tibisc, and the under tail -coverts regularly crossed with 

 alternate bars of black and grey, a few of the grey bars being, 

 however, very slightly tinged with rufous. 



In adult Australian examples of F. m,elanogenys there is a 

 great diversity as regards the degree of rufous colouring on 

 the underparts ; in some individuals it is altogether absent, 

 whilst in others it is largely developed, but never, so far as I 

 have seen, to the same extent as in this remarkable and very 



