236 A Description of the Birds 
tween bands also finely, and some, at least, closely mottled 
with black ; legs and toes yellow; claws black. Length from 
bill to base of tail eight inches ; length of latter five inches. 
Female.—Length from bill to base of tail nine inches ; 
length of latter six inches; the bluish colors are darker; the 
blotch on the side of the head is not of so deep a black ; and 
the white of the under parts is less pure. 
Young.—Base of lower mandible with a slight tinge of 
yellow, rest of bill bluish black; cere yellow; eyes brown; 
head blackish brown, featbers finely edged and tipt with 
rufous; nape and back of neck variegated blackish brown 
and tawny white; lower part of neck behind, together with 
the interscapulars, deep blackish brown, with all the feathers 
tipt with rufous; back feathers black, with rufous tips. 
Upper tail coverts banded brown and tawny ; shoulders black- 
ish brown, the feathers tipt with rufous; blotch or streak 
under the eye blackish brown, and smaller than in old birds ; 
chin and throat pure white; breast and belly tawny, with 
the feathers variegated by oblong black spots, which are largest 
on the flanks, in which situations they sometimes con- 
tain a light colored spot towards the centre of the black; 
many of the variegations on the thighs are somewhat arrow- 
shaped; under tail coverts tawny, with arrow-shaped black 
spots. Primary and secondary wing coverts blackish brown, 
with shades of bluish gray, and the inner vanes spotted with 
tawny or rufous; primary wing feathers blackish brown, with 
the inner vanes nearly crossed by rufous oviform blotches, 
and all finely tipt with white ; secondaries marked in the same 
way, but with the proportion of white at tips a little greater. 
Tail browish black, with seven or eight transverse narrow 
rufous bands, which extend directly across some of the 
feathers, and only partially in others, tips white; legs and 
toes greenish yellow ; claws black. 
The majority of the specimens of this falcon, which I have 
seen, were killed near Cape Town, particularly about Wyn- 
berg and Constantia. I have also seen one which was ob- 
tained near Uitenhage, and have been told that it occurs not 
unfrequently in that part of the colony. Those that were 
rocured near Cape Town exhibited the remains of small birds, 
rats, lizards, &c. in their stomachs. 
Obs.—The first specimen of this species which I obtained 
exhibited an immature plumage, and, from the general ap- 
pearances, I set it down, without hesitation, as the young of 
the Falco Peregrinus. More extended observations have, 
however, now induced me to view it as different, and to place 
it next to that, from the great similarity there exists between 
them. I am much afraid we are too anxious to discover iden- 
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