308 Mr. J. H. Gnrney's iVo/es ow, 



lead-colour, barred with black ; crown of the head and upper 

 part of neck nearly black/' 



The South- African ranp^e of F. minor extends from the Cape 

 colony in a north-westerly direction to Ovampo Land*, and 

 to the north-east to the district of the Zambesi, whence was 

 procured a specimen now in the Norwich Museum, which 

 also contains an example from Anjouan Island in the Comoro 

 group. This Falcon is also an inhabitant of Madagascarf. 



Whether the true F. minor occurs to the north of the 

 equator is, I think, doubtful. A female Falcon, in change 

 from the immature to the adult dress, which was shot by 

 Mr. Blanford in the Anseba valley in Abyssinia, and recorded 

 in his ' Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia,' p. 288, under the 

 name of F. barbarus, but with considerable doubt as to its 

 really belonging to that species, is now in the British 

 Museum, and is included by Mr. Sharpe in his list of the 

 Museum specimens of F. minor. I have not recently re- 

 examined this specimen, and regret that I omitted to do so 

 Avhen last in London ; but from the circumstance of its 

 having, to use Mr. Blanford's words, '^a tendency to a rufous 

 collar at the back of the neck,'' I think it probable that it 

 should not be referred to the southern F. " minm'," but to the 

 more northern race, which will next require our attention J. 



It may be right here to quote a remark contained in Mr. 

 Dresser's work relating to another specimen in the British 

 Museum, which I also omitted to examine when 1 last had 

 the opportunity of doing so ; Mr. Dresser, in his article on 

 F. minor, writes thus : — " A specimen, in immature plumage, 

 from the river Gambia, now in the British Museum, cata- 

 logued by Mr. Sharpe as Falco barbarus, in my opinion 



* Vide Andersson's ' Birds of Damara Laud,' p. 1'2. 



t Vide Milue-Edwards and riraudidier's ' Oiseaiix de Madagascar,' 

 vol. i. p. .32. 



X Mr. Blanford states that, in both wings of this specimen, " the 

 longest feather is slightly imperfect, the absolute length being 12^ 

 inches," and he considers that " the wing measures nearly 13 inches." 

 The tarsus, according to a memorandum of my own, measures 2 inches, 

 and the middle toe s. u. 2*20 ; at the time that I made this memorandum 

 I also noted the leng-th of the wing: as 12'80. 



