20 On the Peregrine Falcon from Sardinia, 



IV. — On the Peregrine Falcon from Sardinia. By R. 

 BowDLEE Sharpe, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c., Senior Assistant, 

 Zoological Department, British Museum. 



Foe the last two years I have been endeavouring to show 

 that, owing to the insulated position of our native land, a ten- 

 dency to vary from the continental forms exhibits itself more 

 or less in all our resident birds ; and that this will be found to 

 be more and more the case I am firmly convinced, if ornitho- 

 logists wiU view the matter calmly and endeavoiu* to get 

 together good series for comparison. Great difficulty exists to 

 some minds in believing that our insular forms do really vary ; 

 and this scepticism is the more curious because, if we had been 

 considering the avifauna of some distant land, every one would 

 have expected^ rather than otherwise, that an island lying off 

 the coast of a large continent would possess a more or less 

 modified fauna : but the difficulty consists in recognizing the 

 fact after it has been ignored for nearly a century by every 

 English writer on birds ; and I have been called to task by 

 several ornithological friends because, as I contend, I refuse 

 to disbelieve the evidence of my own eyesight, which proves 

 to me the distinctness of some of the British birds from their 

 continental relations. What I do maintain is, that ornitholo- 

 gists commit an error in applying to our English birds the 

 titles which Linnaus bestowed upon his Swedish species. 

 Whether the birds which I have from time to time named 

 with Mr. Dresser will ultimately be recognized as distinct 

 species, or will merely be considered climatic races or sub- 

 species, the future will decide ; but as long as those differences 

 exist it will be wrong to affix '■'■ Linnseus " as the namer of 

 birds he never saw. 



It is with regard to the differences exhibited in a like 

 degree by the avifauna of Sardinia that I have been led to 

 make the above remarks ; and I believe that the latter island 

 will be found to contain a modified fauna from that of the 

 mainland. We know that it contains a species of Warbler 

 almost, if not quite, peculiar to itself. So nearly does Sylvia 

 melanocephala resemble the true Melizophilus sardus in some 

 of its plumages, that I have reason to believe that it has often 

 been mistaken for it. I myself have never seen an example 

 of the latter bird from any other locality but Sardinia ; nor do 

 I know any one else who has done so. Until the fact of its 

 wandering is clearly proved, therefore, I think we may look upon 

 S. sarda as peculiar to the island of Sardinia ; and we may 

 expect from this to find other modifications in its avifauna. 

 My friend Mr. A. Basil Brooke has lately lent me two 



