84 
Birds of Celebes: Falconidae. 
range of the species have departed most widely in coloration in a certain direc- 
tion, and we think it advisable to distinguish the two extremes — the races 
of S. E. New Guinea and of India especially — as subspecies : 
1. Falco severus papuaims M. & Wg. 
Abh. Mus. Dresd, 1893 Nr. 3, p. 6. 
Biagnosis. Adult: above darker; tail nearly black; below darker; remiges and tail below 
unbanded. 
Young : wings and tail below obscurely banded, under wing-coverts covered with a 
network of black. 
Distribution. New Guinea. 
2. Falco severus indieus n. subsp. 
Diagnosis. Adult: above paler slaty; tail brownish slaty; wings and tail below barred on 
the inner webs with pale cinnamon. 
Distribution. India (Calcutta: Henderson — C 10568). 
Intermediate forms are known to us from Java (whence the type of the species) 
and Celebes, and it- is probable that the larger part of the East Indies are inhabited 
by such.. 
The legs and feet of Falco severus are stouter and stronger, and the middle 
toe and wings relatively shorter than in F. subhuteo L., the type of Boie’s genus, 
Hypotriorchis. F. severus thus forms a link between the most typical Falcons 
and Fiypotriorchis^ which genus was separated from them chiefly on the ground 
of its possessing a long, thin, middle toe, and slender, somewhat lengthy 
tarsus, but these slight structural peculiarities lose all generic worth when it is 
seen that they hold good only for the extreme forms. 
In India the food of this species is said to consist chiefly of small birds 
(Legge 9)^ but it probably preys largely upon insects as well. Mr. de Bocarme 
found that the species in Java fed chiefly on Orthoptera, the remains of which, 
such as the wings and legs, are to be seen in abundance on the rocks in 
craters to which the bird resorts (2). The specimen obtained in Ceylon by 
Mr. Bligh was shot while hawking dragon-flies. 
Colonel Legge considers F. severus a mountain species; it was found breed- 
ing in the Himalayas in 1860 by Col. Bad cliff e, who got young birds unable 
to fly; Mr. Thompson gives evidence in Hume’s “Rough Notes” as to its breed- 
ing in Kumaon and the Ghurlwal; Mr. Bourdillon is of opinion that it nests in 
Travancore in South India — all more or less mountainous provinces, and Mr. de 
Bocarme found it among the volcanoes of Java as pointed out above. Never- 
theless — as has already been remarked — Blyth observes that it visits the 
plains of Bengal in the cold season and, as it has been also shot at Macassar, 
it frequents the plains in Celebes too. 
In almost all parts of its range F. severus appears to be a rare species. In 
Celebes it certainly is so. It was not included in the large collections sent 
from Celebes by Dr. Fischer to the Darmstadt Museum, nor in those of 
