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8 



the birds the Falcons had killed ; and I found, later on, similar castings near young birds scarcely 

 a fortnight old. In October only did I ascertain the true state of affairs. My servant brought 

 me word to Tragonisi that in following a young Falcon he had climbed up a precipice and found 

 there a nest-hole in which were remains of grasshoppers and a lizard occurring on Myconos, the 

 so-called thorn-lizard (Stellio vulgaris), called, from its resemblance to the crocodile, by the 

 Greeks KpoKoSeiXoc. Although I to a certain extent believed his statement, still I was not 

 satisfied, as he produced no proof. On the following day he found another deserted nest con- 

 taining similar remains, of which he brought me the entire tail of the so-called crocodile lizard, 

 and the elytra of a large water-beetle (Hydrophilus -piceus). In the stomachs of all the Falcons 

 I examined I found only remains of birds ; and it therefore seems as if they only seldom feed on 

 insects or amphibious animals. I have never observed them hoveling in the air and picking up 

 their prey from the ground like the Red-footed Falcon." 



The Eleonoran Falcon is not so very unfrequently kept in captivity. Mr. Osbert Salvin saw 

 three young birds in the Zoological Gardens at Marseilles ; and Lord Lilford, who has kept this 

 bird alive, writes to us as follows : — " I heard from Castang, of Leadenhall Market, in October 

 1868, that he had some Barbary Falcons alive, and telegraphed to him to send two down to me 

 to Invernesshire, where I then was. The birds arrived safely, and turned out to be two nestlings 

 of the present species, with the down still appearing in patches through their young feathers. 

 I subsequently bought two more of the same venture. One bird only of these four survived the 

 winter of 1868-1869 ; and a more charmingly docile Hawk I never saw. She used to fly at large 

 about the place, and would come immediately to a call or whistle, and stoop at the lure, but was 

 shy at coming to the fist, a peculiarity that I have often noticed in training the Common Hobby 

 (F. subbuteo). This bird was eventually chased and driven quite out of sight by some Rooks, and 

 we never saw her again. I am sorry that my best specimens of this species are stuffed and 

 mounted, so that I cannot send them to you for examination. The young birds above alluded 

 to were brought from Mogador to London, having been taken from the nests in sea-cliffs near 

 that town." 



The egg of the Eleonoran Falcon bears considerable resemblance to that of the Hobby, but 

 is somewhat larger in size. We have now before us six eggs of this species from Dresser's 

 collection, all obtained by Dr. Kriiper on the islands near Naxos. None of these eggs bears the 

 least resemblance to the pale washed-out variety figured by Dr. Bree from Thienemann's figure 

 of the egg of this bird, but are, as a rule, quite as richly coloured as the eggs of the Hobby. 

 The ground-colour of these eggs is pale greyish buff or stone ; and the markings, which are spots 

 or blotches of rufous, are sometimes distributed over the entire surface of the egg, or else 

 collected at one end ; one specimen is very richly blotched at one end, the other being almost 

 unspotted. In size these eggs vary from Iff by Iff inch to If J by lf§ inch. Our friend 

 Dr. E. Rey gives the average size of forty eggs as 4T7 by 33 - 2, the largest measuring 44-25 by 

 32"5, and the smallest 38 - 75 by 31-0 millimetres respectively. 



The adult male in the grey plumage described and figured by us, is one of the finest we 

 have ever seen, and was shot by Mr. A. B. Brooke himself on the island of Vacca, off the south- 

 west coast of Sardinia. The adult female in the " Hobby " plumage, of which we have given a 

 description and figure, is also in Mr. Brooke's collection, and was obtained by him on the same 



