21 i BIRDS. 



immaculate above; otherwise similar to the Kestrel; wings rather 

 longer, and talons white. This species, long confounded with the 

 preceding, prefers the south of Europe. 



F. riijipes, Beseke; F. vespertinus, Gm. ; Enl. 431; Naum. 28. 

 (The Grey Kestrel). The male is of a deep ash colour ; the thighs 

 and inferior part of the abdomen red; the back of the female ash 

 coloured, spotted with black ; the head, and all the under part, more 

 or less red. Still smaller than the preceding; most common in 

 eastern Europe; common, also, in Siberia — rare in Germany and 

 France.* 



HiEROFALCO, CuV. •\ 



The Gerfalcons have wing quills similar to those of the other noble 

 birds, which they perfectly resemble in disposition ; but their bill has 

 only an emargination like that of the ignoble ones;]; their long and ex- 

 panded tails extend considerably beyond their wings, although the latter 

 are very long; the superior third of their tarsi, which are short and reti- 

 culated, is furnished with feathers. Only one species is well knoAVTi. 



F. candicans and F. islandicus, Gm, ; Buff. Enl. 210, 456, 462; 

 Naum. 21, 22. (The Gerfalcon). One fourth larger than the 

 Falcon, and the most highly esteemed by falconers. It is chiefly 

 obtained from the north ; its usual plumage is brown above, with an 

 edging of paler points on each feather, and transverse lines on the 

 coverts and quills; whitish below, with longitudinal brown spots, 

 which, with age, are changed on the thighs into transverse lines ; the 

 tail is striped brown and greyish ; but it so varies in the proportion 

 of the brown and white, that the body of some of them is altogether 

 white, and all that remains of the browm is a spot on the middle of 

 each feather of the mantle ; the feet and the membrane of the bill 

 are sometimes yellow, sometimes blue.§ 



* Of foreign species add, 1st, allied to the Kestrel: Le Montagnard, Vaill. 35, 

 (F. capensis, Sh.) — F. sparverius, Enl. 465, Wils. II. xvi. 1, and IV. xxxii. 2, and 

 two or three species, whose wings, otherwise similar to the noble birds of prey, as to 

 tlie relative proportion of the feathers, are shorter than the tail; such as the F. pinic- 

 tatits, Cuv. Col. 45. — F. cohmbarius, Wils. II. xv. 3. 



2d. Allied to the Hobby: F. carulescens, Edw. 108, Vieill. Gal. 18, and Col. 97, 

 hardly larger than a swallow; F. aurantius, Lath., rnfogularis, Ejd., thoracicus, Illig. 

 Col. 348;— f. hidentatus, Lath., or Btdens rufiventer, Spix. VI., which is distinguished 

 by a double tooth in its bill, Col. 38, and the young. Col. 358, or Bid. albiventer, 

 Spix. VIL, but with wings too short; — F. diodon. Col. 198; — F. femeralis, Temm. 

 Col. 121 and 343, and Spix. VIII.;— f. Aldovandii, Reinw. Col. 128. 



3d. Allied to the true Falcon: the Chiquera, Vaill. Afric. 30 (F. cbiquera, Sh.); 

 F. biarmicus, T. Col. 324; — the F. kuppe \f. frontalis, Daud., F. galericulatus, Sh.), 

 Vaill. Afric. 28;— the F. huppart, T. {F. lophotes, Cuv.) Enl. 10;— the F. a cnlotte 

 noire, Vaill. 29, {F. tibialis, Sh.) 



t Hierax, Hiero-falco, Sacred Falcon, &c., names connected with the superstitions 

 of the Egyptians respecting certain birds of prey. Gerfalcon is a coiTuption of 

 Hiero-falco. 



X Nauman, I., p. 278, asserts that it is the falconers who round the tooth of the 

 bill in the Gerfalcons. In that case, and with the bare exception of their long tail, 

 they would re-enter the catalogue of the other Falcons, and the Lanner should be 

 associated with them. 



§ Add as a foreign species, the Cinereous Gerfalcon, {F. atricapillus,) Wils, VI, 

 Hi. 3, of which the Cinereous Buzzard, Edw. 53, {F. cinereus, Gm,) ; is possibly a 

 young specimen. 



