FALCONID^E. 



FALCONID^E. 



726 



coverts, and tail, barred with a darker tint ; primaries brownish black, 

 inner webs barred and spotted with rufous white ; front of neck white, 

 with dark longitudinal lines; breast rufous white, with dark-brown 

 transverse bars ; flanks, under tail-coverts, and under surface of the 

 tail-feathers, barred transversely with dark-brown and grayish-white ; 

 legs and toes yellow, claws black. 



Young. Head and upper surface of body and wing-coverts brownish- 

 ash, the edge of each feather rufous ; the dark longitudinal streaks on 

 the white under-side of the body more conspicuous, but, gradually 

 shortening and spreading laterally, they ultimately change their 

 direction, and become transverse. This change is first observed on 

 the belly and flanks. (Yarrell.) 



Temminck considers the Lanier (Lanner) of Buffon the perfect state 

 of the male Peregrine. He also adds Falco Barbarut of Latham as 

 one of its synonyms. 



The food of the Peregrine consists of laud and water-fowl, rabbits, 

 young hares, &c. It was highly prized in falconry. Tubervile, in 

 his chapter ' Of the Haggart Falcon, and why she is called the Pere- 

 grine or Haggart,' gives the following reasons for the name : " First, 

 because a man cannot find, nor ever yet did any man, Christian or 

 heathen, find their eyrie in any region ; so as it may wel be thought 

 that for that occasion they have atchieved and gotten that name and 

 terme of Peregrine or Haggart Falcons, as if a man would call them 

 pilgrims or forainers. The second cause is, because these falcons do 

 rangle and wander more then any other sort of falcons are wont to 

 doe, seeking out more strange and uncouth countries, which indeed 

 may give them that title of Haggirt and Peregrine Hawks for theyr 

 excellency, because they doe seeke so many strange and forraine coasts, 

 and doe rangle so farre abroad. The third and last cause, I doe thinke, 

 may be their beauty and excellency, because this word (Peregrino), 

 or Peregrine, doth many times import an honourable and choice matter 

 hail in great regard. . . . Wherefore I conclude that these Haggart 

 Falcons are not of Italic, but transported and brought thither from 

 forraine places, as, namely, from Alexandria, Ciprua, and Candie. And 

 yet this is for certaine, that in Italic there are taken of these Haggart 

 Falcons, as in the dominion of the renowned Duke of Ferrara and in 

 the countrie near Ravenna, being brought thither by force of weather 

 and wind. And by that means there are none of those Haggarts 

 found Eyesses, but they are al either soaro Hawks or mewed 

 Haggarts." 



" In the language of falconry," writes Yarrell, " the female Pere- 

 grine is exclusively called the Falcon, and on account of her greater 

 size, power, and courage, is usually flown at herons and ducks ; the 

 male Peregrine, being smaller, sometimes one-third less than the 

 female, in called the Tercel, Tiercel, and Tiereelet, and is more 

 frequently flown at partridges, and sometimes at magpies. Young 

 Peregrines of the year, on account of the red tinge of their plumage, 

 are called, the female a Red Falcon and the male a Red Tiercel, to 

 distinguish them from older birds, which are called Haggarts or 

 Intermewed Hawks. The Lanner of Pennant is a young female 

 Peregrine, at which age it bears some resemblance to the true Lanner, 

 Palm lanarint of authors a true Falcon also, but much more rare 

 than the Peregrine, and which probably has never been killed in this 

 country. Mr. Qould says he was unable to find a specimen in any 

 collection here, either public or private, at the time he was desirous 

 of figuring this species in his ' Birds of Europe.' The true Lanner is 

 only found in the south and south-eastern parts of Europe. The 

 king of France, Louia XVI., had Lanners sent annually from Malta ; 

 but they were brought from the eastern countries. It exceeds the 

 Peregrine Falcon in size, being intermediate between that and the 

 liyr-Kalcon; was much esteemed for flying at the kite, with which 

 the Peregrine is hardly able to contend." The name of Lanner is 

 confined to the female ; the male is called a Lanneret, on account of 

 his smaller size. (' British Birds.') It makes ita nest on high rocks. 

 In Britain Mr. Yarrell states that the Peregrine builds on various 

 parta of the coast, more frequently in Scotland than in England. 

 The eggs are from two to four in number, about 2 inches long by 

 1 inch and 8 lines in breadth, mottled all over with pale reddish 

 brown. Mr. Selby notices their eyrie at St. Abb's Head. It was from 

 this locality that the late Mr. Baird of Newbyth usually obtained his 

 cast of Hawks, for each of which he gave the persons who undertook 

 the peril of climbing the rock one guinea. Other localities for the 

 nest in Britain are the cliffs between Freshwater Gate and the light- 

 ho ( use near the Needles ; Devonshire and Cornwall, where it is called 

 Cliff-Hawk ; Holyhead and the Great Orme's Head (Yarrell) ; rocky 

 coast of Caernarvonshire (Pennant) ; rocky situations inland and 

 marine in Ireland (Thompson quoted by Yarrell) ; Vale of Moffat in 

 Dumfriesshire ; the Bass Rock and the Isle of May in the Forth (Sir 

 Wm. Jardine). It is also found in all the mountainous countries of 

 Europe, particularly on rocks ; very rare in champaign countries ; 

 never found in marshy districts ; abundant in Germany and France ; 

 sufficiently common in England and Holland ; rare in Switzerland 

 (Temminck); Shetland Isles, where it breeds; Denmark, Sweden, 

 Norway, Lapland, and Greenland (Yarrell) ; Uralian and Siberian 

 mountains (Pennant). Sir John Richardson, who describes an old 

 male from Melville Peninsula, 'ii' N. lat., says (' Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana') "The Peregrine being a rare bird in the wooded 

 districts of the Fur Countries where the trading post* are established, 



I did not procure a specimen on the late expeditions ; but I have 

 frequently seen it whilst on the march across the Barren Grounds. 

 Of the two specimens figured by Edwards, one was from Hudson's 

 Bay and the other was caught off the entrance of Hudson's Straits. 

 Sir W. E. Parry likewise brought home several male and female speci- 

 mens from Melville Peninsula, some of which are preserved in the 

 British Museum. It is a summer visitor of the northern parts of 

 America, and frequents the coasts of Hudson's Bay and the Arctic 

 Sea, with the Barren Grounds, but is very seldom seen in the interior. 

 It preys habitually on the long-tailed ducks (A nas glacialis}, which 

 breed in great numbers in the arctic regions, arriving in June and 

 departing in September. Sir W. E. Parry observed it, in hi? second 

 voyage, following flocks of the snow-bunting on the coast of Green- 

 land, near Cape Farewell. It frequents the shores of New Jersey and 

 Pennsylvania in the winter, and is celebrated there for the havoc it 

 makes among the water-fowl. Mr. Ord states that the ducks which 

 are struck by it are lacerated from the neck to the rump ; it gives 

 the blow in passing, and returns to pick up its bird." Port Famine, 

 Straits of Magalhaens (Captain King) ; Australia (Vigors and 

 Horsfield) ; Cape of Good Hope (Dr. A. Smith). Prince C. L. Bona- 

 parte notes it as rare and as seen only in winter near Rome, and as 

 rare and casual near Philadelphia. Dr. Smith (' South African 

 Museum," No. 94) says that the bird so numbered, though it does not 

 exhibit exactly the plumage of the Peregrine Hawk of Europe, yet 

 approaches it so closely that it might be considered as attempting too 

 great a refinement to class it as a different species. 



Mr. Vigors observes that Cuvier has separated the Falco Islandicus 

 of Latham from the rest of the true Falcons, under the generic title 

 of Jfierofalco, which he characterises as possessing no tooth on the 

 upper mandible, but a rounded prominence in the centre, and in 

 which he observes that the wings considerably fall short of the tail in 

 length. In this opinion Mr. Vigors does not acquiesce. He cites 

 examples of the Jerfalcon in its different stages of growth, and in none 

 did he perceive any material difference between its bill and that of 

 the true Falcons. He adds that he feels much hesitation in advancing 

 the above opinion, not merely on account of the known accuracy of 

 Cuvier, but on account of some facts that had then lately come to his 

 knowledge. He mentions a specimen in the British Museum, in which 

 the mandible accords exactly with Cuvier's description " II n'a 

 qu'uu feston comme celui des ignobles." In several specimens from 

 the arctic regions however in the same collection, he found the tooth. 

 After referring to the figures quoted by Cuvier, and their discrepan- 

 cies, he inquires whether it may not be possible that there are two 

 species. He cannot think that the character itself is variable, or that 

 Cuvier would have adopted one which must have been known to him 

 as such, even from the plates. " In no specimen of a true falcon," 

 says Mr. Vigors, " have I seen the slightest alteration of the tooth, 

 except by accident." 



Our limits will not permit us to do more than hfnt at the other 

 species of Falco. F. cAt>7ra, Himalaya Mountains (Gould), Deccau 

 (Sykes), South Africa (Smith), seems to be the nearest in typical 

 points to the Peregrine Falcon. The following species of Falco, 

 besides F. peregrintts and F. cliicquera, are in the catalogue of the 

 South African Museum : F. biarmicut, P. rupicolut, F. rupicoloides, 

 F. tubbuieo, and F. Swairuonii. 



P. tinnuncultu, the Kestrel, inhabits Asia and Africa, as well as 

 Europe, and is very abundant in the Dukhun (Deccan). (Sykea ; 

 Abbott.) 



4th Sub-Family, Buteonina (Buzzards). 



Beak moderate, hooked from the base. Tail equal. 



The sub-family of the Buzzards agrees, in the opinion of Mr. 

 Vigors, with the last in the length of the wings, and the bill being 

 bent from the base ; and differs from it by a weaker and somewhat 

 more elongated bill, by the third or fourth quill-feather being longest, 

 and more particularly by the absence of a tooth on the upper man- 

 dible. A gradation seems however, as Mr. Vigors observes, to soften 

 down these differences, and there is an approximation to the teeth of 

 the Falcons in the first genus of the sub-family. 



Ictinia (Vieillot). Beak short; upper mandible subdentated, 

 lower notched; tarsi short and weak ; acrotarsia scutellated ; wings 

 long, third quill longest. 



Mr. Vigors states that this genus is founded upon the Milan Cresse- 

 rele of M. Vieillot, and has a strong and short bill, the upper mandible 

 of which is somewhat angularly festooned, and the under distinctly 

 notched. The nares are rounded as in the Falcons ; the tarsi are 

 rather short, and feathered below the knees, and the acrotarsia scutel- 

 lated. The wings are of considerable length, extending far beyond 

 the tail ; a character which induced M. Vieillot and others to place 

 the bird near the Kites. Its strong affinity however to the last sub- 

 family, of which it possesses so many of the characteristics, iuclines 

 Mr. Vigors to assign it its present situation. In manners, he adds, it 

 seems also to approach the Falcons ; and he remarks that if we con- 

 sider the Mississippi Kite of Wilson to belong to the present group of 

 Vieillot, of which Mr. Vigors has little doubt, we must attribute to 

 the bird before us, judging from the interesting description in the 

 ' American Ornithology,' much of those spirited and generous qualities 

 which we admire in the typical groups of the family. 



