6% SAKER FALCON. 



The Saker Falcon was confounded from the time of 

 Temminck's first edition of the "Manual d'Ornithologie," 

 up to the publication of Schlegel's "Revue," in 1844, 

 with the Falco lanarius of Linnaeus; and it is still 

 named as such in collections. M. Schlegel has, however, 

 restored the ancient name of Le sacre to the bird 

 described as such by Gesner, Belon, and Buffon, and 

 I think he has done good service to natural science 

 by his researches on the subject; inasmuch as the Lanner 

 Falcon, hitherto confounded with almost every other 

 member of its family, will now take its proper place, 

 and the distinction between it and the Saker, so ably 

 drawn by M. Schlegel, and which in both instances we 

 shall give almost in that naturalist's own words, must 

 for the future be without doubt. 



In the extracts from Schlegel's great work on Falconry, 

 which we shall make about this rare bird, that natu- 

 ralist says, "it is not found, to my knowledge, in any 

 of the English or French Museums." There is, however, 

 now a living specimen of this bird in the Gardens of 

 the Zoological Society, to which my attention was drawn 

 by Mr. Gurney. "A living specimen of this bird from 

 Turkey, now in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, 

 has a different plumage from any other specimens I 

 have seen. This individual is cross-barred like a female 

 merlin." In a subsequent note Mr. Gurney says, that 

 he has seen another specimen in the collection of the 

 East India Company, in which the plumage is the 

 same as in the above bird, namely, having distinct, 

 brown, transverse markings all across the back, shoulders, 

 and wing coverts. Mr. Gurney considers these are the 

 markings of adult age, as the specimen in the Zoological 

 Gardens, (labelled F. lanarius, Linnams,) had few, if 

 any, of them when first sent there. 



