308 African Zoology. 
throat and breast white, the latter with a few longitudinal black 
strie; belly dull greyish white with many small irregular- 
shaped black spots. Eyes brown; bill bluish; base of lower 
mandible, space round eyes, and the legs, yellow. Length 
thirteen inches. 
Young.—Head bluish brown ; feathers finely edged and tipt 
with rufous ; nape and back of neck variegated blackish brown 
and tawny white; back blackish feathers with rufous tips; chin 
and throat pure white ; breast and belly tawny, variegated with 
oblong blackish spots, lar gest on the flanks; tail brownish black 
with seven or eight transverse rufous bands, tips white ; legs 
and toes greenish yellow ; claws black. 
Inhabits Africa and HEurope,—not uncommon in SouthAfrica. 
Le Faucon, Buff. pl. enl. pl. 421. The Blue-back Falcon, 
Penn. Brit. Zool. Falco Peregrinoides, Smith, South African 
Quarterly Journal, vol. i. p. 235. Spervel of the Cape Colonists. 
Falco biarmicus, Temm. Front and anterior part of crown 
black, rest of crown and nape rufous; back of neck, intersca- 
ulars, back, upper tail coverts, and shoulders, bluish grey, 
with dark slate coloured transverse bands ; from the eye to the 
nape a black stripe, and another behind the angle of the mouth; 
sides of neck, and all the under parts, pale tawny-white. Biull 
bluish, the base of the lower mandible yellow; eyes dark brown. 
Primaryand secondary wing coverts hoary blue, with dusky grey- 
white transverse bands; primary and secondary wing feathers 
brownish ; the inner vanes, for the greater part of their length, 
partially crossed by somewhat conical white spots. Tail hoary 
white, with ten or eleven moderately broad, black bands ; the 
intermediate spaces thinlysprinkled with minute brownish black 
dots or lines; tips of all the feathers white ; cere, legs and toes, 
yellow; claws black. Length of male fifteen inches, of female 
seventeen inches. 
Young.—Head rufous, the front and nape variegated with 
black ; back of neck and interscapulars blackish, with the 
feathers finely tipt with rufous; the black stripes on sides of 
head less strongly marked than in full-grown specimens. Sides 
of the neck rufous ; chin and throat tawny-white ; breast and 
anterior part of belly pale rufous, with a roundish black blotch 
towards the middle of each feather ; hinder part of belly, under 
tail coverts, and thighs, pale rufous, without variegations. 
Primary and secondary wing feathers blackish, with the inner 
vanes marked by transverse oviform pale tawny spots, all tipt 
with light rufous. Tail blackish, with seven or eight irregular 
transverse rufous bands: all the feathers broadly tipt with/ru- 
fous. Bill bluish green, with shades of black, and the lower 
Byey with avery faint tinge of greenish yellow at base; cere 
96] 
