IV FALCONIDAE 1 79 



savage adults may even strike the person ; nevertheless, Skuas 

 and certain Owls are decidedly more dangerous, whereas the 

 ordinary Eagle is mild in comparison. The food consists of ducks, 

 guillemots, pigeons, grouse, and partridges, varied by rabbits and 

 so forth ; yet, in spite of the undoubted damage caused to game, 

 preservers would be wise to spare a due proportion of individuals 

 in view of their utility in killing off the more weakly and diseased 

 birds. The two to four eggs, usually finely blotched or thickly 

 mottled with rich red on a creamy ground — though one is often 

 paler or yellowish — are deposited in a hollow scraped on some bare 

 or grassy ledge of a sea-girt or inland cliff; but occasionally nests 

 in ti'ees are utilized, or broken ground in northern regions. Two or 

 more sites are often tenanted in turn. Long distances are traversed 

 in search of food, the survivor of a pair mating again marvellously 

 quickly, considering the comparatively scanty supply of partners. 



F. jperegrinator (atriceps), the Shaheen or Eoyal Falcon, of 

 India, Ceylon, and Tenasserim, distinguishable by the deep ferru- 

 srinous under surface and the general absence of barring, is much 

 prized by natives for hawking, as is the docile but delicate and 

 less courageous Lanner {F.feldeggi or tanypterus) by the Bedouins. 

 The latter is buflish-brown, with ruddy crown and nape, a grey 

 tinge towards the rufous-barred tail, and fawn-coloured lower parts 

 with brown spots ; it ranges from Loango and Unyamuesi in 

 Africa as far as South Europe and Persia, and lays four eggs — 

 lighter than those of the Peregrine — in rocks, ruins, or disused 

 birds' nests, the Dashoor Pyramid being a well-known site. F. 

 hiarmiaus, a close ally from South Africa, is nearly spotless below. 



Of the genus Gennaea or " Desert Falcon," G. sacer (lanarius 

 or milvipes), the Saker, found from Xorth Africa and East Europe 

 to North China, has brown upper parts mottled with fulvous, 

 whitish crown, nape, and lower surface streaked with brown, 

 and white markings across the tail. A swift and fairly bold 

 denizen of open country, it is used for bustard- gazelle- or 

 heron - hawking by Indians and Arabs, while it also preys on 

 hares, birds, and lizards. It deposits three or four rather pointed 

 white eggs, blotched or spotted with various shades of red, 

 in a nest of sticks and grass, normally placed in a tree. G. 

 jugger, the Luggur of India and Afghanistan, differs in being 

 greyer above and less streaked below, with rufous crown and 

 nearly uniform tail, whereas G. mexicana {polyagrus), the Prairie 



