FALCO SEMITORQUATUS. 



thirds of the tail ; second quill feather longest ; first and third nearly equal, 

 and rather shorter than the second; the extremity of the tail slightly rounded. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Inches. Lines. 



Length of the tarsus 1 1 



Length of middle toe 9 



Length of hinder toe 4 J 



Inches. Lines. 

 Length from the tip of the bill to the 



end of the tail 7 



of the bill from the angle of the 



mouth 9 



of the wings when folded 4 3 



of the tail 3 



In the female, the scapulars and the back are deep chesnut brown ; in 

 other respects the colours are similar to those of the male. In point of 

 size there is a little difference, the female being nearly eight inches and a half 

 in length. 



Only three specimens of this elegant little Falcon were procured by the expedition party, and 

 those nearly in the same spot, among some large mimosa trees a little to the eastward of Old 

 Latakoo. None of them were ever observed soaring like other falcons, and the few individuals 

 that were seen were either perched upon the lowermost branches of the trees, or in the act of 

 flying fi'om one tree to another. Considering that this bird was never afterwards procured or 

 even seen more to the eastward, it is probable that the proper habitat of the species will be 

 found in the opposite direction, which I am the more inclined to believe, as one of our party 

 declared he had seen it upon the borders of the Kalahari desert during an excursion we made 

 to the westv^ard of New Latakoo. In the stomachs of two were found the remains of small 

 birds, and in the third, portions of a lizard, and different parts of coleopterous insects. 



If we are to admit Le Faucon a calotte noir of Levaillant, Ois. d'Afrique, pi. 29, (Falco 

 tibialis, Daud.) to be a native of South Africa, we have now eight species of true Falcons 

 inhabiting that part of the globe ; viz. 



Falco rupicolus, Daud. Falco tibialis, Daud. 



rupicoloides, Smith. Chicquera, Le Valliant. 



biarmieus, Temm. Subbuteo, Lin. 



percgrinus, Lin. semitorquatus, Smith. 



The four species in the first column occur in almost every district of the country wliich has yet 

 been explored; the fifth species, if it has a place in South Africa, must be very confined in its range, 

 as I have never either met it myself, nor seen it in collections made by others. The sixth species 

 was for the first time discovered during the movements of the expedition between the principal 

 branches of the Orange river, and it was not until that discovery I could persuade myself 

 that Levaillant had correctly ranked it as an African bird. The seventh is rarely procured, and 

 I have never seen specimens at any great distance from Cape Town. The eighth probably 

 never reaches the latitude of the colony. 



