ASH-COLOURED FALCON. 



9 



It would have been a most desirable object to have obtained the 

 female, but unfortunately we were too late ; it was totally destroyed, 

 There was, however, no longer any doubt that the colour of that sex 

 was brown, not very unlike the general appearance of the ringtail, 

 having been taken for such by Mr. Tucker, upon a cursory view, when 

 he took down the male. 



But it is singularly fortunate that in the same year Mr. Tucker should 

 himself take a nest of this obscure species with young, which he at- 

 tempted to rear, under the idea that they were hen-harriers. 



The nest was discovered in the month of July, on the ground, 

 amongst furze, containing three young birds and an addled egg, which 

 last was white. Two of the young hawks continued alive till the 

 summer of the following year, and were evidently, from their dispro- 

 portionate size, of different sexes. About the beginning of August 

 they began to moult, plainly discovering that they were not hen- 

 harriers as before suspected, but actually the birds in question. Un- 

 fortunately at this most interesting conjuncture, the female made her 

 escape before she had nearly completed her mature plumage, and the 

 only part we could obtain of her was an outer feather of the tail that 

 had been broken off, and was evidently of recent growth by not being 

 completely expanded at the base. This feather has five bars of ferru- 

 ginous, with alternate rufous-white on both webs ; towards the end, the 

 dark bars incline to dusky. 



In the latter end of November the male was by some accident killed 

 in the middle of his moulting, when assuming the feathers of maturity, 

 and was in a mutilated state sent to us for examination ; the descrip- 

 tion of which is as follows. 



The head, neck, part of the scapulars, and most of the lesser coverts 

 of the wings, still possess the nestling brown feathers, which are similar 

 to those of the immatured male hen-harrier, or the adult ringtail; 

 but the ferruginous-brown is brighter, and more inclining to dull 

 orange : all the smaller feathers upon the under part of the wings are 

 bright ferruginous, differing most essentially in colour from that part 

 of the hen-harrier of either sex, or in any state of change, and which 

 in the adult male of that species is invariably white. The under 

 scapulars on one side are similar to those of the adult, elegantly barred 

 ferruginous and white ; but on the other side these feathers have not 

 been changed, and are plain ferruginous : the under parts of the body 

 and thighs are nearly matured, being white, and possessing the bright 

 ferruginous streaks down the shafts of the feathers : the quills, and the 

 greater coverts, are mostly matured, but a few of the nestling feathers 



