FALCO PEREGRINUS. G7 



it abandon the contest. It is certain that pumas make the same mis- 

 take as the Eagles do, for in some that are caught the fur smells strongly 

 of skunk. It might be said that the fact that many Eagles smell of 

 skunk serves to show that they do feed on them, for otherwise they 

 would learn by experience to avoid so dangerous an animal, and the 

 smell of a first encounter would soon wear off. I do not think that 

 hungry birds of prey, in a barren country like Patagonia, would learn 

 from one repulse, or even from several, the fruitlessness and danger of 

 such attacks ; while the smell is so marvellously persistent that one or 

 two such attacks a year on the part of each Eagle would be enough to 

 account for the smell on so many birds. If skunks could be easily con- 

 quered by Eagles, they would not be so numerous or so neglectful of 

 their safety as we find them. 



A fine example of this bird was brought alive from the Argentine 

 Republic to England by Mr. E. W. Goodlake in 1863, and lived for 

 several years in the Zoological Society's Gardens. 



302. GERANOSPIZIAS C^ERULESCENS (Vieill). 

 (GREY CRANE-HAWK.) 



Geranospiza caerulescens, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 121 ; White, P. Z. S' 

 1882, p. 623 (Salta). Geranospizias caerulescens, Sharpe, Cat. B. i. 

 p. 81. 



Description. Above plumbeous, nape and upper tail-coverts slightly mottled 

 with white ; wing-feathers black, with a large white spot on the inner webs of 

 the primaries ; tail black, with two broad ochraceous white bars and white tip : 

 bene&th plumbeous, abdomen and under wing-coverts with irregular white 

 cross bands ; bill plumbeous ; feet yellow : whole length 16-5 inches, wing 9-5, 

 tail 8'0. Female similar, but not so distinctly coloured, and larger. 



Hob. South America. 



White obtained an example of this species at Campo Colorado, near 

 Oran, and another on the Upper Uruguay. 



303. FALCO PEREGRINUS, Linn. 

 (PEREGRINE FALCON.) 



Falco peregrinus, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 121 ; Withington, Ibis, 1888, p. 470. 

 Falco communis, Sliarpe, Cat. B. i. p. 376. 



Description. Above plumbeous, lighter on the rump, more or less distinctly 

 barred with blackish ; head and cheeks "blackish : beneath white, tinged with 

 emnamomeous, abdomen and thighs sparingly traversed by narrow black cross 



F2 



