54 



true Falcons, it appears very partial to the neighbourhood of water ; frequently it will follow the 

 sportsman on the look-out for wounded game. On the 19th of April I shot a female specimen 

 in an interesting stage of plumage, from which my description of the immature bird is taken." 

 According to Von Heuglin " it is more frequently met with in the winter than in the summer. 

 It frequents groves, such as palm-groves, bare rocky mountains, pyramids, and old temples ; and 

 in the autumn, when the large flocks of Ducks and Waders arrive, it is seen on the lagoons, 

 canals, and overflown meadows. It lives singly and in pairs, nesting on cliffs and inaccessible 

 ruins in March and April." 



In North-west Africa this Falcon appears to be tolerably common. Canon Tristram met 

 with it in Algeria, where, Loche remarks, it is rather more numerous in the southern districts 

 than on the coast ; and Colonel Irby says (Orn. Str. Gibr. p. 51), " according to Favier this 

 species, which the Moors confound with the Peregrine, is resident, and as common as that 

 species around Tangier. On the 1st of May 1872, I obtained a female Lanner and three eggs. 

 The nest was on the rocks near the above town. Two of the eggs were slightly sat on; the 

 third, much lighter in colour, was addled, which is often the case with eggs faintly marked or 

 differing from the usual colouring." It appears to be common at Mogador, where, judging 

 from Lord Lilford's description, Falco tanypterus, Licht., also is probably to be met with. 

 This species, which is generally considered distinct, differs from Falco feldeggi merely in having 

 the upper parts darker and more uniformly coloured, the nape rather more rufous; and it is also 

 smaller in size, and has the scutellee on the tarsi larger. 



In South Africa, however, there is a perfectly distinct species of Lanner, Falco biarmicus, 

 Temm., which differs in having the crown and nape more intensely rufous, and the underparts 

 almost unspotted in the adult, and of a rich vinous red colour. 



In "Western Asia the Lanner is replaced by Falco babylonicus, a species with which I am but 

 little acquainted, and which appears to differ but slightly from the true Lanner. It is well 

 figured in 'The Ibis' (1861, plate vii.) from a specimen obtained by Colonel Irby in Oudh ; and 

 this gentleman gives (Ibis, 1861, p. 218) the following notes communicated to him by Dr. Sclater, 

 viz.: — "Captain Irby's specimen seems to be referable to a new species or a distinct variety of 

 true Falcon, most nearly allied to Falco barbarus (cf. ' The Ibis,' 1859, p. 184, pi. 6 ; Falco pere- 

 grinoides of Temminck), for which Mr. Gurney proposes to use the name Falco babylonicus, the 

 first specimen of it having been obtained in Babylonia by the Euphrates Exploring Expedition. 



" The coloration of F. babylonicus is nearly similar to that of F. barbarus, but generally 

 lighter, and rather more rufous on the front of the head : the size, however, is nearly one third 

 greater, being the same as that of F. lanarius of Schlegel. From the latter bird it may be 

 distinguished — (1) by the absence of the whitish frontal band, the rufous of the vertex 

 extending forwards onto the cere, and being bordered behind by a broad band of dark slaty 

 brown, which divides it from the rufous of the nape; (2) by the feathers on the back of the 

 neck below the nape being bordered with rufous of the same tinge as on the nape ; this 

 edging is sometimes present in F. barbarus, but never to the same extent in F. lanarius; (3) 

 by the comparative absence of spots on the upper portion of the lower surface, in which 

 character it nearly agrees with the Abyssinian form of F. lanarius, which I take to be strictly 

 Lichtenstein's F. tanypterus. The middle claw of F. babylonicus is longer than that of F. 



