1946 



THE DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY 



coloration of the typical northern peregrine, which ranges over all Europe, 

 except Iceland and Spitzbergen, while eastward it extends across Siberia to 

 China and Japan, and thence to the Malay islands. It also occurs in North- 

 eastern Africa, as far as Kordofan, and occasionally straggles as far as the 

 Cape, where, however, its place is normally occupied by the very distinct lesser 

 peregrine (F. minor). Entering India on the extreme northwest, it is replaced 

 in the peninsula by the shahin falcon (F. peregrinator) . In Java we meet another 

 .southern form, known as the black-cheeked falcon {F. melanogenys}, which ranges 



CAST OF PEREGRINES RED FAI.CON AND BLUE TIERCEI,. 



to Australia, and is distinguished by its redder and more finely-barred plumage. 

 Ornithologists are now pretty well agreed that the peregrine of North America 

 where it is commonly known as the duck hawk is merely a variety of the Euro- 

 pean species, but in Chili and the adjacent parts of South America we meet with 

 another form, apparently allied to the black-cheeked falcon, and known as F. 

 nigriceps, or F. cassine. 



Breeding on the cliffs of the sea coast in the south, and in the more mountain- 

 ous districts in the interior of the country, the peregrine is best known in England 



