Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue of Accipitres. 319 



Dekma should be referred to F. punicus. I however make 

 this suggestion with some diffidence, as the Djebel-Dekma 

 Falcon (which stands as D in my list of specimens of F. pu- 

 nicus) certainly approaches nearer in coloration to F. barbarus 

 than does any other male of F. punicus that I have examined, 

 and I do not remember having ever seen a specimen of either 

 species exactly like it. On comparing it with the Kef-Boudjato 

 Falcon, and with three other adult examples of F. barbarus, 

 I find that in D the rufous on the nape is paler and duller, 

 and that, instead of forming a complete nuchal collar, it is 

 limited to two vertically oblong patches, one on either side of 

 the centre of the nape and partially and obscurely continued 

 towards the outer edge of the crown of the head ; the rest of 

 the upper surface in D resembles F., barbarus and also the 

 paler examples of F. punicus ; the feathers of the crop, except 

 those of the central portion, show narrow^ black shaft-marks ; 

 the flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts are cross-barred with 

 black, the former more distinctly than the two latter ; the 

 entire breast and abdomen is sprinkled with distinct black spots, 

 which, except very slightly on the abdomen, do not assume 

 the form of bars. I may add that somewhat similar spots on 

 the breast are observable in A, I, and C, as also on the new 

 breast-feathers of the young male F. barbarus, in change, 

 collected by jNIr. Favier at Tangier, and now in the Norwich 

 Museum, which I have already mentioned. 



I proceed to refer to the female specimens of F. punicus 

 which I have examined, and which I have found to be less 

 numerous in collections than the males. 



Mr. Salvin, in the same passage in which he speaks of the 

 two adult Falcons which he obtained in the Eastern Atlas, 

 also mentions two nestlings which he procured from a rock 

 near the northern boundary of the Lake of Guerah El Tharf, 

 respecting which he observes that '' between these two birds 

 there subsisted a marked difference in size " — a peculiarity 

 which accords very well with the disparity in the dimensions 

 of the sexes in F. punicus ; in fact, the larger bird of these 

 two, which I kept alive till it was about seven years old, and 

 which is now preserved in the Norwich Museum, proved on 



