30 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



and Java F. melanogenys breeds, resembling the South-African and the 

 North-west Indian forms in having the underparts below the breast very 

 closely barred, and the latter in having those parts greyish. The South- 

 American form found in Chili and Patagonia, F. cassini, is scarcely distin- 

 guishable from F. melanogenys and F. atriceps. 



Another allied species, the Barbary Falcon {F. barbarus), of which F. 

 babyloniciis is probably the female, inhabiting North Africa, Turkestan, 

 and North India, belongs to the Lanner group of Falcons, differing from 

 the Peregrine group in having more or less chestnut on the nape, and 

 would not require notice here were it not for the fact that it apiparently 

 interbreeds with the Peregrine, producing intermediate forms known as 

 jF". punicus, which are found on the shores of the Mediterranean. The 

 variations of plumage in this supposed species are, to quote the words of 

 Mr. Gurney Clbis,'' 1882, p. 316), "not a little remarkable, some specimens 

 being almost andistinguishable in markings and coloration from F. minor, 

 others approaching exceedingly near in these respects to F. barbarus, w\iW&i 

 the majority exhibit a plumage more or less intermediate between these 

 two extremes." When we consider that F. punicus is a slightly larger 

 bird than either F. minor or F. barbarus, and have regard to its geo- 

 graphical distribution, to the pale slate-grey of its upper parts, and its 

 tendency to be suffused with slate-grey on the underparts below the breast, 

 it seems most probable that it is an intermediate form between F. barbarus 

 and F. peregrinus . 



I 



SITE OF PEREGRINE S NEST ON THE PETCHORA. 



