FALCONS. 



313 



These northern falcons or gyrfalcons are said to be the only ones which resemble 

 the peregrine in being streaked below while young, and cross-banded when adnlt. 



Another falcon, which much resembles the young of the i)cregriiie, Iml wliicli is 

 streaked below at all ages, is the laimer, F. lamtrius, of southern Europe, north 

 Africa, and southwestern Asia. Several well-marked races of this form arc found in 

 other countries, for instance the lugger, F.jngger, of India, and the prairie-falcon, F. 

 mexicamis, of 3Iexico and the southwestern territories of the United States. 



M v^^ ^ . ., ,. 



Flu. 148. — Paico lUhofatco, merlin. 



A better-known American bird is the so-called ]iige(>n-hawk, Falco coliimbarins, 

 which occurs throughout the wliole of the United States. Though a. much smaller 

 bird than the duck-hawk, it is equally bold and fearless, and frequently kills birds 

 heavier than itself. It is very closely allied to, if not identical witli, the Euni])ean 

 merlin, F. Uthofalco; and these two forms, with the Indian F. cliitptera, and its 

 African race, ruficoUis, and a few others, are not unfrequently separated from Falco, as 

 a sub-genus JEsalon, the merlins. 



