236 



FALCON 



called by naturalists a " Falcon." This species inhabits suitable 

 localities throughout the- greater part of the globe, though examples 

 from North America haA^e by some received specific recognition as 

 F, anatum — the " Duck-Hawk," and those from Australia have been 

 described as distinct under the name of F. melanogenys. Here, as 



in so many other cases, 

 it is almost impossible 

 to decide as to Avhich 

 forms should, and 

 which should not, be 

 accounted merely local 

 races. In size not sur- 

 passing a Raven, this 

 Falcon is perhaps the 

 most poAverful Bird-of- 

 Prey for its bulk that 

 flies, and its courage is 

 not less than its power. 

 It is the species, in 

 Europe, most com- 

 monly trained for the 

 sport of hawking. 

 Volumes have been 

 written upon it, and 

 to attempt a complete 

 account of it is, within 

 the limits now avail- 

 able, impossible. The 

 plumage of the adult is generally blackish-blue above, and white, with 

 a more or less deep cream-coloured tinge, beneath — the lower parts, 

 except the chin and throat, being barred transversely with black, 

 while a black patch extends from .the bill to the ear-coverts, and 

 descends on either side beneath the mandible. The young have the 

 upper parts deep blackish-brown, and the lower Avhite, more or less 

 strongly tinged with ochraceous-brown, and striped longitudinally 

 Avith blackish-brown. From Port Kennedy, the most northern part of 

 the American continent, to Tasmania, and from the shores of the Sea 

 of Ochotsk to Mendoza in the Argentine territory, there is scarcely a 

 country in which this Falcon has not been found. Specimens have 

 been received from the Cape of Good HoiDe, and it is only a ques- 

 tion of the technical differentiation of species, whether it does not 

 extend to Cape Horn. Fearless as it is, and adapting itself to 

 almost every circumstance, it will place its eyry as ecpially on 

 sea-washed cliffs, craggy mountains, or (though more rarely) the 

 drier spots of a marsh in the northern hemisphere, as on trees (says 

 Schlegel) in the forests of Java, or in the waterless ravines of Aus- 



Peregrine Falcok. (After Wolf.) 



