FALCO KLE0NOE.5: 139 



Iris dark browu ; bill bluish at the base and blackish at the tip ; cere 

 and feet greenish-yellow. 



Total length 15 inches, wing 12-30, culmeu '80, tarsus 1'30. 

 Adult female similar in plumage to the male, but slightly larger. 



Observations. — Among the large series of examples of this species in the 

 Lilford collection, now in my possession, may be found examples in the 

 various stages of plumage, several being in the uniform dark sooty dress, 

 though most are in the Hobby-like plumage. The uniform dark attire 

 appears to be acquired by both sexes. 



This fine Falcon occurs in Tunisia, but is probably not common 

 there, and I have only two specimens of it from the Regency, both of 

 which were obtained in the neighbourhood of the town of Tunis. 

 The species may possibly be less uncommon in some parts of the 

 country little known to, or visited by, naturalists, but the character of 

 the greater part of the Tunisian coast is not calculated to attract the 

 bird, which is eminently a cliff-loving species, and one not to be found, 

 as a rule, on flat, low-lying shores. Uninhabited, or thinly populated 

 islands, with steep precipitous cliffs, are the favourite haunts of this 

 Falcon, which is probably rarely to be found far from the sea. Salvin, 

 it is true, met with it on the Eastern Atlas, at a considerable distance 

 from the coast, but it is no doubt exceptional to find this species far 

 inland. 



Loche includes the EJeonoran Falcon in his list of Algerian birds, 

 but says it is rare in the country, and chiefly to be met with in the 

 Province of Constantine, and on the Tunisian frontier. Mr. Dixon 

 also mentions having met with it at Phillippeville. In Marocco the 

 species is said to occur at Mogador, and it is also probably to be found 

 in other localities along that coast. 



The species occurs on several of the islands of the Mediterranean, 

 but is scarce except on a favoured few, where it breeds, and is 

 probably resident all the year round. Upon other islands it seems 

 to be merely an accidental, or irregular visitor, and there can be but 

 little doubt that the species is to a certain extent migratory. 



Among its chief strongholds in the Mediterranean may be men- 

 tioned the small island of Dragonera off the west coast of Majorca, 

 where Mr. Howard Saunders found the species most abundant in 

 1870 ; Toro and Vacca, two islets off the south-west coast of Sardinia, 



