130 PEREGRINE FALCON. 



same species with the preceding ; and indeed it is 

 difficult to consider it as even deserving the title of 

 a striking variety: the only pretended difference 

 consisting in the cast of colour, which inclines more 

 or less to blue on the upper parts. 



Var.f 



LANNER. 



This is a kind of Falcon described by Belon a^ 

 common at that time in France, though, according 

 to Buffon, it is now become extinct, or at least 

 unknown. It was said to build on tall forest-trees, 

 and on elevated rocks, and to be easily distinguished 

 by its blue bill and feet, by the feathers on the 

 front being mottled with black and white, the spots 

 being transverse, and not longitudinal as in other 

 Falcons; and that when the wings were spread, 

 they appeared different on their under surface 

 from those of other Falcons, exhibiting scattered 

 round spots, like pieces of coin, (deniers) The 

 neck and bill were said to be short and thick, and 

 the male and female to resemble each other in 

 plumage, the female being called Lanner, and the 

 male Lanneret. 



The Falco Lanarius of Linnaeus is characterized 

 in the Sy sterna Naturae by having the bill blue with 

 a yellow cere, the legs blue, and the body marked 

 beneath with longitudinal black spots. He acids 

 that it has a white band along the front, over the 

 eyes; that the legs are short, and that it is of a 



