FALCO. 



waxh : //,M,/,s rufous, with Ih,- vmains her,' ami fher.' nf h/acMsh shaft slr^aks ; hill hi aish-lf.ad colour, 

 black at the tip .- hys a>,./. fe.-l, yellow : iris dark hr,„r„. Total l.n.,,th i„ th,' flrsk hi inches, 

 U'in.q .97', tail oS, hiH it i;.', tarsus I'J,. 



Adult female. — '<ionlar iu jilumaf/c tn the uialc, hut lar,,cr. Wiu^i lO-.: luches. 

 /;;s/j77-«//„/;.—Nortli- western Australia, Northern Territory of South Austraha, Queensland, 

 New South Wales, Virtoria, South Australia, Central Australia, Western Australia,'Tasmania. 

 Al^HE White-fronted Falcon is the smallest of the t,'enus /•■„/,„ mhabitin.L; the Australian 

 -L Continent, over which it is generally distributed, and is likewise found in Tasmania. 

 In the Australian Museum Collection there are specimens obtained at Cape York in North- 

 eastern Queensland, at Km,;:; George's Sound in South-western Australia, at Port Essington in 

 the Northern Territory of South Australia, at Port Lincoln in South Australia, and various 

 localities in New South Wales. It has been recorded also in nearly every collection of any size 

 made in Australia, and which it is needless here to enumerate. 



Latham originally described it as Fah;> Inuulatin in his " Index Ornithologicus," which is 

 founded on the Lunated Falcon of his " General Synopsis of Buds," and according to the late 

 Dr. R. B. Sharpe in his " History of the Collections of the British Museum," the latter is taken 

 from a picture of Watling's now in the British Museum, as were many others of Latham's 

 Australian descriptions. 



This species chiefly frequents open forest and heath lands, belts of timber on the plains, 

 and rocky mountain ranges. It is generally distributed over the County of Cumberland, but it 

 is by no means common. In the neighbourhood of Sydney it is obtained sometimes at Randwick, 

 Ashf^eld and Middle Harbour, and I have seen it occasionally flymg over the Sydney Domain^ 

 but not of recent years. The specimens received in the flesh by the Trustees of the Australian' 

 Museum, are generally the result of a F^alcon falling a victim to a poultry keeper's gun while 

 it is enga-ed in some pi-eon or chicken-pilfering e.xpedition. With a specimen sent from Picton, 

 Forester H. O. Rotton writes :-" I forward a ' Hawk' which I shot here to-day, it having done 

 a great deal of harm among the chickens and pigeons on several of the farms in this district." 



Comparative with its size it is one of the most couraijeous of all our Australian birds of 

 prey, fully equalling that of the Collared Sparrow-Hawk, a bird about its own size. It does not 

 hesitate to attack almost anything that flies, from the size of a Finch to a Cockatoo, and even 

 larger. Where procurable. Pigeons of all species form a favourite article of diet, and when the 

 Falcon makes its swoop at one of these birds while on the wing, the Pigeon is comparatively 

 stationary, to the swift and arrow-like flight of its adversary. It does not, however, always 

 succeed in securing its would be victim. In company with Mr. F. H, Lane and Mr. George 

 Savidge, at Middle Harbour one day, I saw a White-fronted Falcon during flight strike a 

 Magpie Lark, the latter uttering shrill notes of distress as the two birds were tumbling about 

 in the air, but as we hastened to the spot the Magpie Lark eventually eluded the grasp of th. 

 Falcon. On the Namoi River I saw this species engaged in the pursuit of Welcome Swallows, 

 but did not see it secure one. 



With a species having so wide a geographical lange there is the usual amount of individual 

 variation found in the plumage of the adults of both sexes, especially in specimens from widely 

 separated localities, although occasionally in examples from the same district. Some adult 

 birds in breeding plumage have the upper parts brownish-black with the edges of the feathers 

 indistinctly margined with bluish-grey, and the throat and sides of the neck pale creamy-white; 

 in others the latter part is rufous-bufT. An adult female from Port Essington, in the Northern 

 Territory of South Australia, has the foreneck pale rufous-buf^" broadly streaked with dark 

 brown. Wing 10-65 inches. In some specimens the forehead is whitish, in others it is faintly 

 tinged with butf. Usually young birds are darker above, and richer in colour below, but there 



e 



