8 



ASH-COLOURED FALCON. 



a trifle cuneiform, the two middle feathers dusky -brown, the rest dark 

 ash-colour, palest on the two or three outer feathers, which have their 

 inner webs approaching- to white ; all except the two middle feathers 

 have five equidistant bars on the inner web, taking- in the shaft ; these 

 bars on the two outer feathers are bay, the rest more or less dusky, with 

 a ferruginous ting-e on those at the base : legs orange-yellow, rather long 

 and slender : claws small, and black. 



The bird from which this description is taken is a male, proved to be 

 so by the unerring rule of dissection. He had the feathers behind the 

 ears short, but no ruff continued round the head so conspicuous as in 

 the hen-harrier. He was in good condition, and in his stomach was 

 a sky -lark, and yet his weight was not so much as that of the hen- 

 harrier by three or four ounces ; though his length and breadth were 

 much superior, by reason of his longer wings and tail. It must also be 

 remarked that he cannot be a young bird, as some of the quills are 

 moulting ; the first and second feathers of the secondary quills in each 

 wing are not full grown, but are of the same colour as the rest, and 

 possess the same bars. 



On the 23d of May, in the year 1808, says Montagu, we observed one 

 of these birds in South Devon, skimming over a patch of furze very near ; 

 and noticed that it repeatedly dropped into the same spot, after having 

 pitched on the bare ground at some distance ; but could not observe whe- 

 ther it was preparing a nest or not. At the same time we noticed a 

 large brown hawk floating over another piece of furze at a little distance. 

 This had much the appearance of the ringtail, but appeared longer in the 

 wings, which gave a suspicion that these were actually the two sexes 

 of the ash-coloured-falcon ; and which seems to be confirmed by subse- 

 quent events. 



Mr. Tucker, while looking over our museum, had this bird pointed 

 out to him, and was asked if he had ever seen it. To which he re- 

 plied that he thought he had, but had probably mistaken it for a variety 

 of the hen-harrier. In a short time after Mr. Tucker sent us one of the 

 secondary quill feathers of this bird, which was then in his possession, 

 and informed us that both sexes of this species were shot in that summer 

 (1808) from the nest, by the gamekeeper of Mr. Templer, of Stover, 

 in Devonshire, and that three young ones were also taken at the same 

 time. All these had been nailed up against the garden wall, and were 

 considered as the hen-harrier, with his female the ringtail, and their 

 offspring ; the male of which had been previously taken down by Mr. 

 Tucker as a variety of the hen-harrier, before we had pointed out to 

 him the distinction. 



