FALCONS 89 



from 10 to 18 inches in length. As a rule in birds of prey the 

 female is larger than the male. It is dark slate colour above, 

 with a brick-red head — the latter with black shaft streaks, 

 the former barred with bluish-grey, below pale fawn colour. 

 Its range is wide, extending to Central Africa and Angola. 

 It is a rapid and strong flyer, sallying forth from some krantz 

 to prey upon birds, and steal what poultry it can lay its claws 

 on. We have known it to raise almost full-grown poultry 

 from the ground : in one ease the bird would have carried off 

 its prey (a half-grown duckling) bad not a pointer dog gallantly 

 rushed to the rescue, and leaping up caused the Hawk to 

 drop the duckling, which escaped with a few scratches. This 

 species has been trained for hawking by my friend, Mr. B. 

 C. E. Langford of the Irrigation Dept., who has had three of 

 these birds at odd times in training. One w T as particularly 

 good, and of which we append illustrations. 



The South African Peregrine Falcon (F. minor) very much 

 resembles the English bird, the chief point of difference 

 being its considerably smaller size. 



The Bed-necked Falcon (Falco ruficollis) has the hind 

 neck and crown of head of a reddish-chestnut, and is cobalt- 

 blue above, barred with narrow black stripes. The breast 

 is of a pale chestnut, and the rest of the lower surface of a 

 pale blue barred with black. 



It is not a common bird in South Africa, but the Transvaal 

 Museum contains a female mounted in its nest, taken near 

 Pretoria by Mr. C. B. Horsbrugh on October 24, 1904. This 

 has now been created a new sub-species by Dr. Gunning and 

 Austin Roberts, who have named it F. horsbruglii. 



The Pigmy Falcon (Poliohierax semitorquatus) should 

 perhaps not be included in this chapter, but as it belongs 

 to the Falcons I will include it here. It is an extremely 



