THE PEREQ&INM FALCON. 291 



The American. Cuckoo-Falcons (Ha/rpagus) are the only other birds of prey which have a double- 

 toothed bill. 



The name of " Cuckoo "-Falcon has been given to these birds on account of their actual resemblance 

 to a Cuckoo, in the grey colour of the back with the reddish bars on the under surface. They have also 

 a very large yellow eye. The distribution of the genus Baza is singular, and it is one of those forms 

 which does not occur in Emppe, but exhibits the affinity which is often seen between certain African 

 and Indian birds. About nine different kinds are known, each having its own limited range. Thus 

 Swainson's Cuckoo-Falcon (B. cuculoides *) is found in the forest country from Senegambia to Gaboon 

 in West Africa, and is replaced by Baza Verreauxi in the forests of Natal. In Madagascar a third 

 species (B. madayascarie'nsis) ocelli's, and on crossing the Indian Ocean a fourth kind (B. ceylonemis) is 

 found inhabiting Ceylon. Malacca and the Sunda Islands have their own Baza sumatrensis, the 

 Philippines B. magvirostris, the island of Celebes B. erythrothorax, the Moluccas and New Guinea B. 

 Reinwardti, and Northern Australia, B, subcristata. None of these birds appear to be migratory, and 

 their geographical distribution is interesting when traced out on a map of the world. 



From their shy and retiring habits, but little has been recorded of their life. Verreaux's Cuckoo- 

 Falcon is said to frequent the dense bush in Natal, and Captain Harford shot one in that country 

 while engaged upon an ant-hill, and their food appeal's to consist of Grasshoppers and Mantidse, while 

 another observer took from the stomach of one of these birds remains of a green Mantis, of Locusts, and 

 of a Chameleon. This species is one of the largest of the Cuckoo- Falcons, measuring seventeen inches 

 in length, and the colour is dark ashy-grey ; deeper ash-colour on the head and crest ; the sides of 

 the face, throat, and chest, are clear ashy ; the breast white, banded across with pale rufous brown ; the 

 under tail-coverts being pure white ; both the wings and tail are barred with dark brown. The sexes 

 of these birds differ very little in size. 



THE FALCONETS (Microhierax^, 



This name is applied to a genus of tiny Falcons, which are peculiar to the Indian region. One of 

 them, the Indian Falconet (Mierokieraas ccerulescens), is found in the Himalayas and the Burmese 

 countries. A second one is peculiar to Assam, a third to the Philippine Islands, and a fourth to the 

 interior of China, while the fifth and remaining species is found in the Malayan Peninsula and the 

 Sunda Islands. 



Not one of these little Hawks is seven inches in length, and even to this day there are many 

 authors who think that they are Butcher-birds or Shrikes, and not Hawks at all. They are, however, 

 true Falcons, though of very small size, and are said to be used by native chiefs for hawking insects and 

 Button-quails, being thrown from the hand like a ball ; but this story has been discredited of late, the 

 Besra, a small Sparrow-Hawk, being probably the bird alluded to. The Falconets are known to sit 

 solitary on high trees, and according to native accounts they feed on small birds and insects. 



THE PEREGRINE FALCON (Faleo peregrinm*}. 



This noble bird justifies his name of peregrinus, by his distribution over the earth's surface. 

 The ordinary Peregrine, which is still found in suitable places breeding on British coasts, is 

 met with all over Europe and Northern Asia, ranging into South Africa and India in winter, 

 extending throughout China to the Sunda Islands, and the Philippine Archipelago. In North 

 America he is also widely distributed, and is as plentiful as in Europe. In the southern hemisphere the 

 Peregrines, though strictly of the same type as the European bird, are always darker in colour, and 

 have blacker faces and heads. The Australian Peregrine is called Falco melanogenys, and extends 

 its range from the Australian continent to New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, and as far north as 

 Java. In South Africa the resident Peregrine is a very small, dark-coloured bird, and is called Falco 

 minor. This species is also met with in North-eastern Africa, and even ranges into the Mediterranean, 

 as it has been shot in Ehocles, Sardinia, and Morocco. Again, in Chili, another dark-faced form occurs, 

 the Falco nigriceps,\\ not unlike its Australian relative. 



To write a history of the Peregrine Falcon would be almost to write a history of falconry, and 



* Lit., like a Cuckoo. t MI*P<K, small, tiny; >a, a Hawk. J A wanderer. 



M*a, black ; ye'cts, a cheek. || Nigriceps, black-headed. 



