44 FALCONID^E. 



below the eye, nearly black ; the back and upper surface 

 bluish slate or ash colour, becoming lighter in colour at 

 every succeeding moult, the males usually the most so : 

 the feathers of the back, wing-coverts, and tail, barred with 

 a darker tint ; the primary wing-feathers brownish black, 

 the inner webs barred and spotted with rufous white ; the 

 front of the neck white, with dark longitudinal lines ; the 

 breast rufous white, with dark brown transverse bars ; the 

 flanks, under tail-coverts, and the under surface of the tail- 

 feathers, barred transversely with dark brown and greyish- 

 white ; legs and toes yellow, the claws black. The figure 

 here given was taken from a very fine female of large size, 

 in its second year, but still retaining one outer tail-feather 

 of the first year on each side. The wing and tail-feathers 

 are not changed in the Falconida in their first autumn. 



Young Peregrines have the head and upper surface of 

 the b9dy and wing-coverts of a brownish ash-colour, 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, ultimately 

 change their direction, and become transverse. This change 

 is first observed on the feathers of the belly and flanks. 



The vignette below represents the falconer bearing his 

 Hawks to the field. 



