FALCO LIMN^ETUS. 



another place. I shall now only add, that both the testimony of the natives, and the 

 remarks I personally made on the manners of our. bird, have fully convinced me 

 that the Falco niveus is a species distinct from the Falco Limnsetus. 



The extensive materials which M. Temminck received from Java, have enabled 

 him to give a very beautiful figure of our bird, representing it in its most perfect 

 state .of plumage. I was limited to a single specimen, in which the slight modifi- 

 cation of a reddish tint on the head was less distinct. The external covering is 

 very uniform in our specimen, and it was of a habit less full than that figured by 

 M. Temminck, in consequence of which the tarsi appear considerably elevated. But it 

 sufficiently accords with M. Temminck's description, both in respect to the colour and 

 the proportion of parts ; and lengthened tarsi constitute, agreeably to the opinion of 

 this distinguished naturalist, a peculiar character both of the Falco niveus and the 

 Falco Limnaeetus. The bill is represented in our figure, in a small degree too large 

 in proportion to the size of the head. Indeed the smallness of the hill has appeared to 

 me to afford a peculiarity ; and as M. Temminck has made a remark on the Adew I 

 have taken of the characters of this Bird, I shall add it in his own words. — " Les 

 caracteres pris des doigts et des ongles de cet oiseau, servent a M. H. pour dtablir les 

 differences propres a reconnaitre cet oiseau de toute autre espece. EUes peuvent 

 etre employees comparativement aux autres esp^ces de rapaces Javans, mais on n' en 

 saurait faire usage comme moyen de comparaison dans la grande sdrie des rapaces 

 diurnes, parmi lesquels on trouve des especes a doigts beaucoup plus courts, et a 

 ongles plus egales entre eUes." lu the Catalogue, however, already referred to, the 

 bill is mentioned in conjunction with the smallness of the toes, and the plumose 

 covering of the tarsi. — " A short strongly compressed and strongly curved beak, 

 tarsi closely covered with plumes throughout their whole length, small claws, and 

 those of nearly equal size on all the toes, form the prominent characters of our bird,"* 



The Falco Limnaeetus is a scarce bird. I found it but once resorting to the 

 extensive lakes, formed during the season of the rains, in the southern parts of the 

 Island, where it feeds on fishes. I never met with it throughout the extent of the' 

 northern sea-coast. 



* Transactions of the Linnean Society^ Vol. XIII. p. 138. 



