Ornithology of Sardinia. 153 



saw a solitary pair. The stomachs of all the Eleonora Falcons 

 examined by me (four in number) also contained the remains 

 of small birds. Two old males that I obtained were in their 

 beautiful adult dark slaty-blue plumage. A third, a young 

 male, probably of the previous year, differed from adult fe- 

 males in the much darker colour of its breast, and also in the 

 colour of its feet, which were of a decided orange-yellow, in- 

 stead of the pale yellow faintly tinged with green character- 

 istic of the old female bird. The wings of the four specimens, 

 as they lay before me in the flesh, reached almost exactly 

 level with the end of their tails, not extending beyond. 



17. Falco subbuteo. 



I only once saw this bird, in April, hawking high in the 

 air for flies &c. over a nearly dried-up river-course. I think 

 it is merely a bird of passage. 



18. Falco vespertinus. 

 Passes annually in spring. 



19. Falco jEsalon. 



A winter visitor, during which season it is not uncommon. 



20. Falco cenchris. 



I found a pair of these birds breeding in the high rocks 

 behind Villacidro in company with great numbers of the com- 

 mon Kestrel during the month of May. They are not com- 

 mon, and this is the only occasion on which I observed them. 

 They are very easily distinguished from F. tinnunculus by 

 their cry, which is quite different, being much shorter, con- 

 sisting of only three notes. In the stomach of a male I found 

 the remains of a lizard and several grasshoppers. 



Canon Tristram informs me he observed a few pairs breeding 

 on the south-east coast in 1856. 



21. Falco tinnunculus. 



Extremely common all the year round. Their principal food 

 during the summer is locusts ; and I have watched them flying 

 into their nests, eight and ten at a time, each bird holding 

 a locust in its claws. The amount of good they must do in 

 thus helping to lessen one of the greatest curses of the island 



SER. III. — VOL. III. M 



