inhabiting the South of Africa, 237 



titles ; and the search after such is materially retarding the 

 advance of the science. It is much easier to«get rid of a 

 name than to detect the existence of two species, when em- 

 bodied in one description, and therefore it appears to me 

 best, when a doubt can justly exist as to identity, to consider 

 the objects, especially if their habitats be very apart, as dis- 

 tinct species. 



Falco ruficolus. Daud. Roodevalk. Steenvalk of the 

 Colonists. 



Shaw, vol. 7, p. 192.— Le Montagnard, Le 



Falco capensis, Shaw, vol. I 

 Vaillant Ois. d'Afrique, pi. 35. 



jF. capite saturate ctsruleo-griseo, dorso et humeris tiifis 

 nigro maculatis ; gula alba ; pectore, rufo lineis longitudinalibus 

 nigris variegato, abdorriine rufo maculis nigris notato ; remi- 

 gibus subnigris, pogoniis internis albo lineatis, cauda rotun- 

 data, grisea fasciis nigris transversis variegata. 



Male.— Bill bluish black towards tip, bluish white at base; 

 cere yellow; eyes brown; head, together with the back 

 and sides of neck, dark slate color, with each feather marked 

 along the centre by a longitudinal slender black streak ; in- 

 terscapulars and back deep rufous, with small black spots or 

 longitudinal streaks; shoulders and scapulars deep rufous, 

 with irregular or somewhat triangular black spots; chin 

 tawny ; breast rufous, variegated with longitudinal black 

 lines ; belly rufous, with black spots ; vent and thighs tawny, 

 without variegations. Primary and secondary wing coverts 

 black, with irregular tawny white transverse bands; primary 

 wing feathers black, with the inner vanes nearly completely 

 crossed by numerous white indentations ; secondaries blackish, 

 with both vanes crossed by irregular rufous bands. Tail dark 

 bluish gray, with seven or eight black bands, all veiy narrow, 

 except the last, which is nearly an inch in width ; on the 

 three outermost feathers of each side the black only appears 

 upon the inner vanes, but on the rest it crosses both ; all the 

 feathers are broadly tipt with white ; legs and toes yellow ; 

 claws black. Length from bill to base of tail six inches and 

 a half; length of tail five inches. 



Female— Length from bill to base of tail eight inches; 

 length of latter six inches ; head brownish gray ; back tawny 

 rufous, with the variegations less numerous than in the male ; 

 chin and throat tawny white ; breast and belly tawny brown, 

 the former with longitudinal black streaks, and the latter 

 with similar colored spots. In other respects nearly the same 

 as the male. 



