-iSG FALCO ISLAXDICUS. 



borrowed fi'om Temminck, says that it " lays from 3 

 to 5 spotted eggs of the size of a ptarmigan ; " but 

 he does not state that he has seen its eggs ; and if- 

 he has not, be could not have acted mor^e judiciously 

 in the way of guessing as to number and marking, for 

 most hawks' eggs are spotted, and " from 3 to 5" is 

 a very general character. The printer, doubtless, has 

 erred as to the size, for the ostrich is the only bird 

 whose egg can be said to be " of the size of a ptar- 

 migan." 



Young. — The young, when fledged, has the bill and 

 cere pale blue, the irides brownish-black, the feet grey- 

 ish-blue, the claws dusky. The general colour of the 

 plumage above is grey tinged witli brown, each feather 

 having a very narrow margin of paler, and with some 

 whitish spots towards the end ; the quills are mottled 

 with brownish-white on the inner webs, and the tail is 

 transversely barred with thirteen rows of transversely 

 oblong spots of brownish-white, of which colour also 

 are the tips. The lower parts are brownish-white, the 

 throat with longitudinal streaks, the breast and sides 

 with patches of dark brown ; the lower wing and tail- 

 coverts barred with brown and white. 



In the young state, the species has been beautifully 

 figured and minutely described by Mr Audubon, — Plate 

 cxcvi. and vol. ii. p. 552. The individuals represented 

 by him were apparently in their second year, and were 

 supposed to have reared a brood. From the perfection 

 of their plumage, which was such that the tail-feathers 

 had not even lost their minute acumination by rubbing, 

 I should be inclined to think that the two birds ob- 



