inhabiting the South of Africa. 237 
tities ; and the search after such is materially retarding the 
advance of the science. It is much easier to get rid of a 
name than to detect the existence of two species, when em- 
bodied in one description, and therefore it appears to me 
best, when a doubt can justly exist as to identity, to consider 
the objects, especially if their habitats be very apart, as dis- 
tinct species. 
Fatco rupicotus. Daud. Roodevalk. Steenvalk of the 
Colonists. 
Falco capensis, Shaw, vol. 7, p. 192.—Le Montagnard, Le 
Vaillant Ois. d’ Afrique, pl. 35. 
F. capite saturate ceruleo-griseo, dorso et humeris rufis 
nigro maculatis ; gula alba; pectore, rufo lineis longitudinalibus 
nigris variegato, abdomine rufo maculis nigris notato; remi- 
gibus subnigris, pogontis internis albo lineatis, cauda rotun- 
data, grisea fasciis nigris transversis variegata. 
Male.—Bill bluish black towards tip, bluish white at base ; 
cere yellow; eyes brown; head, together with the back 
and sides of neck, dark slate color, with each feather marked 
along the centre by a longitudinal slender black streak; in- 
terscapulars and back deep rufous, with small black spots or 
longitudinal streaks ; shoulders and scapulars deep rufous, 
with irregular or somewhat triangular black spots; chin 
tawny; breast rufous, variegated with longitudinal black 
lines ; belly rufous, with black spots ; vent and thighs tawny, 
without variegations. Primary and secondary wing coverts 
black, with irregular tawny white transverse bands ; primary 
wing feathers black, with the inner vanes nearly completely 
crossed by numerous white indentations; secondaries blackish, 
with both vanes crossed by irregular rufous bands. Tail dark 
bluish gray, with seven or eight black bands, all very narrow, 
except the last, which is nearly an inch in width; on the 
three outermost feathers of each side the black only appears 
upon the inner vanes, but on the rest it crosses both ; all the 
feathers are broadly tipt with white; legs and toes yellow; 
claws black. Length from bill to base of tail six inches and 
a half; length of tail five inches. 
Female.—Length from bill to base of tail eight inches ; 
length of latter six inches; head brownish gray; back tawny 
rufous, with the variegations less numerous than in the male; 
chin and throat tawny white; breast and belly tawny brown, 
the former with longitudinal black streaks, and the latter 
with similar colored spots. In other respects nearly the same 
as the male. 
[39] 
