and some other British Birds, 321 



Falco cinerareus. 

 Ash-coloured Falcon. Orn. Dictionary. 



By the examination of a recent specimen of this bird killed 

 on the 10th August 1S03, near Kingsbridge in Devonshire, 

 1 am enabled to add somewhat to the description of it, and 

 to correct a mistake in the work above referred, to, which I' 

 trust will not be unacceptable to the ornithologist. 



It Weighed nine ounces and three quarters : length 

 eighteen inches ; breadth three feet eight inches and a half j 

 length from the elbow to the end of the third quill feather, 

 Which is the longest, fifteen inches and half; length of the 

 tail from the gland on the nfmp nine inches and a half. Bill 

 black, the base and cere greenish : irides and eyelids bright 

 yellow : crown of the head, cheeks, throat, under part of the 

 neck, and upper breast dark ash-colour: upper part of the 

 neck, back, and scapulars cinereous-brown ; the latter is 

 cinereous at the base of the feathers with the tips brown : 

 the smaller coverts are marked in the same manner as the 

 scapulars ; the greater coverts are cinereous-brown, the ex- 

 posed part of each feather darkest, but not tipped like the 

 others : the eight prime quills are dusky- black, the last with, 

 a dash of cinereous; the first is very short, the third bv far 

 the longest : secondary quills cinereous brown above, pale 

 beneath, with three remarkable dusky-black bars across 

 them, nearly in parallel lines, each half an inch in breadth ; 

 one only of which is to be seen on "the upper side of the 

 wing, the others being hid by the coverts, this is about two 

 inches from the tips of the feathers ; on the under part of the 

 wing two of these bars are very conspicuous, the other close 

 to the base is much paler, and hidden by the under coverts, 

 (he first row of which is white, with a large dusky bar across 

 their middle; the rest are bright bay, more or less spotted, 

 barred, or margined with white : the under parts of the 

 body, including the under tail coverts and thighs, white, 

 with a broad streak of bright bay down the shaft of each 

 feather : under scapulars with broad alternate bars of bay 

 and white : the tail is somewhat cuneiform, the two middle 

 feathers dark brown, or dusky, the rest dark :ash-colour. 



Vol. 32. No. 127. Dec. 1808. X palest 



