]56 FALCON. 



wing and greater coverts the same ; tail 9^ in. long, rounded at the 

 end, colour pale silveiy grey ; on the outer feathers five or six irre- 

 gular dusky bars, or blotches, down the shafts, but indistinct, the 

 others plain ; upper coverts white ; legs yellow, feathered before 

 below the joint. 



Inhabits China. — Sir Joseph Banks. 



72.— FISHING FALCON. 



Falco Piscator, Ind. Orn. i. 43. Gm. Lin. i, 279. Skaw''s Zool. vii. 158. 

 Le Tanas, Faucon-pecheur, Buf. i. 275. PI. enl, 478. Damp. Voy. iii. 318« 

 Fishing Falcon, Gen.Syn.\. 95. 



LENGTH 20 inches; bill l|:in. stout, yellow, swelling at the 

 base, but without a cere ; in shape like that of other Falcons, but 

 less curved, except at the point; and scarcely notched, except just at 

 the end; nostinls a slit near the base; at the back of the head 

 a conspicuous full crest, composed of feathers, some 2 in. in length ; 

 colour of the head, crest, neck, and breast ferruginous brown ; crest 

 featliers narrow, with pale edges; wing coveits brownish dove-colour, 

 with dark shafts, giving the appearance of streaks ; quills bluish 

 brown, the first not half the length of the others, the fourth longest; 

 all of them marked within, mostly fiom the base, largely with white; 

 liack paler brown, with dark streaks down the shafts ; beneath from 

 the breast dirty white, streaked with brown ; thighs and under wing 

 coverts the same ; tail long, of ten feathers, rather rounded, 9^ in. 

 in length ; two middle ones brown with dark ends, the otliers dusky 

 lilack ; the thigh feathers hang a little below the joint before — legs 

 deep brown, moderately stout ; claws hooked. 



