FALCO PEREGRINUS 127 



parts of Italy, this species is but rarel)' observed in the island of 

 Sardinia. Olive-groves are much frequented by the species, no doubt 

 for the sake of the bees and wasps, which generally swarm in such 

 plantations. These insects and their larvae form one of the chief 

 items of this bird's food. A certain proportion of honey may be eaten 

 by the Honey-Buzzard, when plundering a hive, but this is probably 

 only swallowed together with the insects themselves, and does not 

 form the object of the raid, ^^^len meditating a descent in some 

 particular spot, the birds may be seen circling slowly round and round 

 in gradually diminishing curves for some time before they actually 

 venture to come down. The species, though lazy and sluggish in its 

 habits, is on such occasions, fairly wide awake, and takes every pre- 

 caution against a possible ambush. Besides feeding largely on insects 

 it will sometimes pre}' on small mammals and birds. The note of the 

 species is a shrill cr}'. 



I have no knowledge of the Honey-Buzzard breeding in Tunisia, 

 or indeed anywhere in North-west Africa, though I think it quite 

 likely that the species nests in districts north of the Atlas. 



FALCO PEREGRINUS, Tunstall. 

 PEEEGEINE FALCON. 



Falco peregrinus, Tunstall, Orn. Brit. p. 1 (1771) ; Koenig, J. f. 0. 



1888, p. 140 ; Whitaker, Ibis, 1898, p. 126. 

 Falco communis, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Miis. i, p. 376 ; LocJie, Expl. 



Sci. Akj. Ois. i, p. 48 (1867). 



Description. — Adult female, winter, from North Tunisia. 



Forehead whitish; crown, nape, mantle, and moustachial patch very 

 dark slate ; lower back, scapulars, and rump bluish-slate, becoming paler 

 on the rump, and barred with a darker shade of slate ; quills very dark slate, 

 marked on their inner webs with creamy spots ; tail bhiish-slate, barred 

 with dark slate, and slightly tipped with cream colour; chin, throat, and 

 upper breast creamy-isabelline ; abdomen the same, but spotted with dark 

 slate, and barred with that colour on the sides and flanks. 



Iris brown ; bill dark slate ; cere and feet yellow. 



Total length 20 inches, wing 1-1-75, culmen 150, tarsus 2-20. 



Adult male similar to the female, but smaller. 



Young female, winter. North Tunisia. 



