FALCO BIARMICUS FELDEGGI 135 



FALCO BIARMICUS FELDEGGI (Schlegel). 

 LANNER. 



Faico feldeggii, Schlcyd, Abh. Geb. Zool. p. 3, Taf. 10, 11 (1841) ; Sharpe, 



Cat. Birda Brit. Mtis. i, p. 389. 

 F. feldeggi, Koenig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. lo-l ; id. J. f. 0. 1892, p. 341; 



WlutaJ;ci-, Ibis, 1895, p. 103; Eiiangcr, J.f. O. 1898, p. 455. 

 Gennaja Lanarius, Loche, Expl. Set. Alg. Ois. i, p. 53 (1867). 



Description. — Adult male, spnng, from North Tunisia. 



Forehead creamy-white ; crown and nape pale isabeliine-rufous, very 

 sparsely striated here and there with fine blackish streaks ; moustachial 

 stripe, region round the eye, and an irregular stripe behind the eye extend- 

 ing to the sides of the neck and mantle, blackish ; back, scapulars, and 

 upper wing-coverts brown, barred and margined with a lighter shade of 

 brown, or greyish-brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts ashy-blue, barred 

 with brown ; tail, including the central rectrices ashy-grey, closely and 

 irregularly barred with pale isabeliine-rufous ; quills blackish, barred on 

 the inner webs with pale rufous ; chin and throat creamy-white, becoming 

 creamy-isabelline, or creauiy-rufous on the breast and rest of the underparts, 

 breast slightly striated, and abdomen, flanks and thighs spotted with dark 

 brown . 



Iris dark hazel ; l)ill bluish-slate, darker at tip, and yellowish at base ; 

 cere and feet yellow. 



Total length 16 inches, wing 12, culmen 1, tarsus 185. 



Adult female similar to the male, but larger. 



Total length 1850 inches, wing 14, culmen 1-10, tarsus 2. 



Young bird a few months old. 



Forehead whitish ; crown and nape isabelline, thickly streaked with 

 blackish ; rest of upper parts dark brown, the feathers margined with 

 isabelline ; tail dark brown, tipped subterminally with isabelline, the four 

 central rectrices unbarred, and the rest barred with isabelline ; chin and 

 cheeks cream-colour, slightly striated with blackish ; heavy moustachial 

 stripe, and stripe behind the eye blackish ; rest of the underparts creamy- 

 isabelline, thickly striped with dark brown. 



Iris dark hazel ; bill and cere pale slate ; feet pale greenish-grey. 



Observations. — After having examined a fairly large series of Lanners 

 from different parts of Africa and Europe, and putting aside the South 

 African F. biarmicus as distinct from all others on account of its unsjjotted 

 underparts when fully adult, I cannot recognise but one form. This should 

 no doubt be treated as a subspecies of F. biarmicus, apparently the oldest 

 name for the group, and bear the name of F. biarmcus feldeggi (Schlegel). 



There is undoubtedly a certain amount of variation in plumage between 



