ELEONOBA FALCON. 45 
on land. When sitting with my legs dangling over the precipice a 
little below the highest peak, these birds passed backwards and for- 
wards within a few yards, as thick as Swallows on a summer's evening. 
They were in the uniform sooty and Hobby-like plumage, in about 
equal numbers; many of the latter from their size I judged to be females. 
One of the fishermen informed me that he had once found a clutch of 
three eggs which he described correctly, and which of course he had 
eaten; but the majority of the nests placed in the holes of the sheer 
precipice are perfectly inaccessible, so much does the upper part over- 
hang. The Rock Pigeon f C. livia,) of which there were great numbers 
did not show the slightest fear of these Falcons. The fishermen call 
them 'Esparver.'" 
A fine adult male in the Norwich Museum is in colour of a nearly 
uniform dark chesnut, rather lighter underneath. The quill feathers 
darker, nearly black above, shading off to a lighter colour below, and 
marked by indistinct elongated spots. The feathers of the under parts 
are fringed with a reddish tint, more particularly the throat and under 
the cheeks, the thigh feathers and under tail coverts. The tail is round, 
six inches long, and the same colour as the rest of the body, but 
barred underneath with nine or ten rows of darker tints. Cere, tarsi, 
and feet are said to be greenish yellow; claws black. 
The female, which is labelled by M. Verreaux as in immature plu- 
mage, is so exactly like the Hobby, that a minute description is 
unnecessary. It has, however, a more general reddish tinge, is larger, 
and the beak not only more robust, but entirely different in shape 
when compared with that bird. 
This bird is not figured in Gould's "Birds of Europe." It is well 
illustrated in Dresser's "Birds of Europe." 
In the first edition I figured a variety of the egg from Thienemann. 
Mr. Dresser in his "Birds of Europe," said the variety was new to 
him; but I have one collected by Kruper, in my collection, exactly 
like it. I figure now a more typical egg taken by the same distinguished 
oologist in Greece, and which is also in my collection, 
The following remarks were made upon this bird in the supplement 
to the first edition: — 
"In the first volume, page 44, I have given a figure of the adult 
of this species, (from Bonaparte's " Fauna Italica,") which, though 
somewhat stiff in its attitude, is, I believe, a very good drawing of the 
bird. It varies, however, very much in plumage, and owing to its 
unfortunate confusion with F. concolor, Temm., many erroneous des- 
criptions and figures have found their way into ornithological works. 
Thus Heuglin, in his List of Birds collected on the Bed Sea, (Ibis, 
vol, i, p. 338,) gives F. eleonorce as synonymous with F. concolor, Riippell, 
