7i PEREGEINE. 



and tipped with dull white; tertiaries, ash colour, faintly barred; 

 greater and lesser under wing coverts, whitish, barred with a 

 dark shade. The tail, slightly rounded, bluish black, or bluish 

 white, tinged with yellowish grey, barred with twelve bars 

 of blackish brown, the last the widest, and the others gradually 

 widening towards it; upper tail coverts, bluish black, barred 

 as the back; under tail coverts, ash grey, barred with dark 

 shades; legs, dull yellow, short and strong, feathered more 

 than half-way down, and scaled all round; the scales in front 

 being the largest; toes, dull yellow, strong and scaled, and 

 rough beneath; the second and fourth are nearly equal, the 

 hind one the shortest, the third the longest, and the third 

 and fourth united by a membrane at the base; claws, brownish 

 black or black, strong, hooked, and acute. 



The female is larger by comparison with the male than 

 even is the case with other Hawks. The dark parts of the 

 plumage are darker, and the dark markings larger: they 

 decrease with age. Length, from nineteen to twenty-three 

 inches; cere and iris, as in the male; head, deep greyish brown; 

 neck in front, yellowish white, with longitudinal marks of 

 deep brown, and on the sides and behind greyish brown; the 

 streak on the sides is dark brown; throat, yellowish white, 

 marked longitudinally like the neck; breast, brownish white, 

 or yellowish white, with bars of deep brown: it is altogether 

 more inclined to rufous than in the male, with less grey, the 

 longitudinal spots come higher up, and the transverse spots 

 and bars are broader and more boldly marked, and deeper in 

 hue ; back, deep greyish brown, brownish grey, or bluish grey, 

 barred less distinctly than in the male with grey. 



The wings, which are of a deep greyish brown colour, or 

 varying as the back, expand to the width of three feet eight 

 or nine inches; the quill feathers are of the same colour, 

 spotted on the outer webs with ash grey, and on the inner 

 ones with cream-colour; greater and lesser wing coverts, 

 blackish brown, with bars of grey on the outer webs, and 

 spots of reddish white 011 the inner; secondaries, tipped with 

 whitish. The tail has eighteen bars of ash grey and deep 

 brown alternately; those of the latter colour are the broader: 

 the tip is brownish white; the bars on the tail are more 

 distinct than in the male bird. 



The young are at first covered with white down: when fully 

 fledged the bill is dull pale blue, darker at the tip; cere, 

 greenish yellow; iris, dark brown. Forehead and sides of the 



