Genus FALCO. 

 Accipiter apud Brisson, Orn. i. p. 321 (1760). 

 Falco, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 124 (1766). 

 Hierofalco apud Cuvier, Regne Anim. i. p. 312 (1817). 

 Hypotriorchis apud Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 976. 

 Cerchneis, apud Boie, ut supra. 

 Erythropus apud C. L. Brehm, Isis, 1828, p. 1270. 

 Mgypms apud Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 29 (1829). 

 Pannychistes apud Kaup, op. cit. p. 57 (1829). 

 Aesalon apud Kaup, op. cit. p. 40 (1829). 

 Dendrofalco apud G. R. Gray, List, of Gen. of B. p. 3 (1840). 

 Tichornis apud Kaup, Classif. Saugeth. u. Vog. p. 108 (1844). 

 Poecilornis apud Kaup, Contrib. to Orn. 1850, p. 53. 

 Gennaia apud Bonaparte, Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 536. 

 Pnigohierax apud Cabanis, Journ. f. Orn. 1872, p. 156. 

 Idthofalco apud Blasius, fide R. B. Sharpe, Cat. Accipitr. p. 374 (1874). 



The Falcons are essentially the most noble of all the Raptores. Compact and powerful in 

 structure, and endowed with great power of wing, as well as high courage, they are specially 

 formed for a predatory life ; and all obtain their prey by capturing it while flying, or pouncing on 

 it from above when quartering the ground on the wing. By many authors the genus Falco has 

 been considerably subdivided, our European Falcons having been separated into three genera, 

 Falco, Hierofalco, and Cerchneis; but it appears to me unadvisable to separate these groups 

 generically. 



The Falcons are distributed throughout all the zoogeographical regions into which the world 

 has been divided, except that they are not represented in Oceania. In the Western Pahearctic 

 Region fourteen species are found, the distribution of which is given in the following separate 

 articles. These birds inhabit both the plains and woods as well as cultivated places — in fact 

 any localities where they can best find food. They are extremely strong in flight, rapacious 

 and bold, and feed on the smaller mammals and birds, which they pursue on the wing and strike 

 down ; and it is the birds belonging to this genus which are, as a rule, utilized in falconry. 

 Some of the species (Falco eleonorce and Falco vespertinus for instance) feed chiefly (these two, 

 indeed, almost exclusively) on insects, whereas several of the other species prey only on the 

 smaller mammals and birds. They breed on trees and on rocks, some species even nesting on 

 the ground, and either construct their own nest of sticks and twigs lined with wool and moss, 

 or else take possession of and repair any suitable nest which may have been deserted by its- 

 owner. Some species, however, Falco cenchris for instance, nest in holes, constructing either 

 a slight nest or else depositing their eggs without any thing being placed under them. The 

 eggs of the Falcons vary a good deal, some being much more richly marked than others. They 

 are, as a rule, blotched and marked with deep orange, rufous, or deep reddish brown, on a dull 

 white, reddish white, or dull buffy orange ground. 



Falco peregrinus, the type of the genus, has the bill short, strong, curved from the base, 

 upper mandible with a median festoon and an anterior angular process, the tip strongly hooked 

 and sharp ; lower mandible with the tip truncate, and a rounded notch on each side near the tip ; 

 wings long and pointed, the second quill longest, the first and third being nearly equal ; tail long, 

 broad, rounded ; legs strong, tarsus rather short, covered with scales, of which the anterior ones 

 are somewhat hexagonal ; toes long, scutellate above ; claws long, curved, acute, flat beneath. 



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