236 FALCON 
called by naturalists a “ Falcon.” This species inhabits suitable 
localities throughout the greater part of the globe, though examples 
from North America have by some received specific recognition as 
I’. anatum—the ‘ Duck-Hawk,” and those from Australia have been 
described as distinct under the name of F. melanogenys. Here, as 
in so many other cases, 
it is almost impossible 
to decide as to which 
forms should, and 
which should not, be 
accounted merely local 
races. In size not sur- 
passing a Raven, this 
Falcon is perhaps the 
most powerful Bird-of- 
Prey for its bulk that 
flies, and its courage is 
not less than its power. 
It is the species, in 
Europe, most com- 
monly trained for the 
sport of hawking. 
Volumes have been 
written upon it, and 
to attempt a complete 
account of it is, within 
PEREGRINE Fatcon. (After Wolf.) the limits now avail- 
able, impossible. The 
plumage of the adult is generally blackish-blue above, and white, with 
a more or less deep cream-coloured tinge, beneath—the lower parts, 
except the chin and throat, being barred transversely with black, 
while a black patch extends from the bill to the ear-coverts, and 
descends on either side beneath the mandible. The young have the 
upper parts deep blackish-brown, and the lower white, more or less 
strongly tinged with ochraceous-brown, and striped longitudinally 
with blackish-brown. From Port Kennedy, the most northern part of 
the American continent, to Tasmania, and from the shores of the Sea 
of Ochotsk to Mendoza in the Argentine territory, there is scarcely a 
country in which this Falcon has not been found. Specimens have 
been received from the Cape of Good Hope, and it is only a ques- 
tion of the technical differentiation of species, whether it does not 
extend to Cape Horn. Fearless as it is, and adapting itself to 
almost every circumstance, it will place its eyry as equally on 
sea-washed cliffs, craggy mountains, or (though more rarely) the 
drier spots of a marsh in the northern hemisphere, as on trees (says 
Schlegel) in the forests of Java, or in the waterless ravines of Aus- 
