62 FALCONID^E. 



imagines that the statement of its breeding in Ceylon, made 

 by Mr. Layard, has also arisen in error. De Filippi met 

 with it in Persia, and Canon Tristram in Palestine, where he 

 says that it occurs in suitable places at all times of the year. 

 In Egypt it is a pretty common winter-visitant, according to 

 Dr. von Heuglin, who states that it follows the course of 

 the Nile to lat. 10 N. and thence extends into Kordofan and 

 Abyssinia. Sir William Jardine has a specimen from 

 Mozambique, and it has been recorded, but probably in 

 error, from Madagascar. In South Africa it occurs, and the 

 Norwich Museum contains specimens from Natal and the 

 Cape Colony, but it is probably only an accidental visitor in 

 this part of the world, where its place is occupied by Falco 

 minor, a very distinct form. It does not seem to have been 

 met with anywhere in West Africa, but was more than once 

 observed by M. Bertholet in the Canaries. On the coast 

 of North Africa it again appears, but in the interior of the 

 country it is represented by F. barbanis. In America, it 

 has long been a matter of doubt whether the Falcon, which 

 there admittedly represents F. peregrinus, should be con- 

 sidered specifically distinct from it or not, and the birds from 

 the eastern side of the country have been separated under 

 the name of F. anatum, while those from the west have 

 borne that of F. nigriceps ; but of late the tendency on the 

 part of the most competent judges has certainly been to 

 unite the Common Falcon of the New World with that of the 

 Old. It may be true that, as a rule, the eastern portion of 

 the dominion of Canada and of the United States is in- 

 habited by a bird which is generally larger and somewhat 

 darker than that of Europe and Asia, and the western por- 

 tion by a slightly smaller race still more deeply coloured, but 

 the differences are by no means constant, and examples are 

 to be found on either side of the Atlantic which entirely 

 agree with each other. Under this view of the case, then, it 

 may be said that the Peregrine Falcon inhabits suitable 

 localities throughout the whole of the New World, from Port 

 Kennedy, at the most northern point of the American conti- 

 nent (whence specimens not to be distinguished from English 



