178 FALCONIFORMES CHAP. 
bars. In the very similar Ae. columbarius, the “ Pigeon Hawk” 
of North America, extending to Venezuela and Ecuador, the tail- 
bars in the respective sexes are four and six. This species and 
the following usually build in trees, using twigs, roots, grass, and 
moss for their nests. Ae. (Chicquera) typus, the Indian “ Turumti,” 
is a larger bird, both male and female being grey above and white 
below, with red head and dark barring nearly throughout, while 
Ethiopian Ae. (C.) ruficollis is slightly less striped. 
The most typical member of the Family is Falco peregrinus 
the almost cosmopolitan Peregrine Falcon, of which the sub-species 
F. melanogenys and F. ernesti, the commonest forms from the Sunda 
Islands to China and Fiji, are more closely barred below, though 
not so broadly as / cassini of the extreme south of America. 
The colour is slaty-grey above with darker transverse markings, 
the head and a stripe down each side of the neck being blackish, 
and the under parts ruddy-white banded with black. Young 
birds are browner, and are streaked instead of barred. Barely 
separable is the smaller and darker / minor of South Africa, the 
Comoro Islands, and Madagascar, with its larger race #. punicus, 
found from Morocco along both sides of the Mediterranean to 
Asia Minor. #. barbarus, also of the Mediterranean region, 
but chiefly confined to Africa north of the Niger, and the 
Soudan, 1s distinguished by its red nape, brightest in the larger 
sub-species, J babylonicus, which occurs from Babylonia to 
North India. The Peregrine Falcon, often erroneously called 
“Goshawk” in Scotland—a fact accounting for many British 
records of the latter—is for its size the most powerful of the 
Family ; and, being one of the “noble” or long-winged forms, 
is much used in Falconry, wherein the male is termed “ Tiercel ” 
and the female “Falcon,” as in many other species; while 
“Hunting Hawk,” “Blue Hawk,” and, for the young, “ Red 
Hawk,’ are names common to both sexes. 
Far the most daring of our Birds of prey, the fierceness and 
courage are especially shewn in defence of its nestlings, both 
parents dashing angrily at an intruder, and, though rarely touch- 
ing him, swooping down in unpleasant proximity, as he clambers 
along some narrow ledge or swings upon his rope. Should, however, 
the hen-bird, which sits very closely, have fresh eggs, she dis- 
appears on leaving them, though her consort flies wildly to and fro 
at some little distance, reiterating his shrill ery. Exceptionally 
