FALCO. 
Falco is a Linnean genus, and as typical of it for many years the 
magnificent Peregrine Falcon was regarded. That bird was, however, unknown 
to Linne in 1758, so that some other species had to be so fixed. This point 
was discussed by the American Ornithologists’ Union’s Committee in 1886, 
when they designated Falco suhbuteo as type. Previously the group typified 
by Falco suhbuteo had been considered generically separable, but it is certainly 
the nearest in every superficial feature to the Peregrine group. The Little 
Falcon of Australia is quite typical, bemg even ranked by the lumper Schlegel 
as only a form of Falco suhbuteo. This view is not accepted by recent lumpers, 
and it is quite possible that future lumpers will not accept the generic lumping 
of present day genus-lumpers. 
In Falco sensu stricto, which consists of small birds, the bill is short, 
much hooked with toothed mandible edges : the wings are very long, the 
first primar}!^ almost as long as the second, which is longest, and longer than 
the third — the fourth, fifth and sixth rapidly decreasing. The legs are long 
and thin, the toes also long and thin, the middle toe noticeably lengthened. 
The tail is long and square or slightly rounded. 
In BhyncTiodon practically the same features exist without alteration, 
although the birds are immensely superior in size, and peculiarly the same 
coloration is seen. Superficially the rank to be accorded to Falco would be 
sub-generic, but osteological examination has led workers in that field to 
distinguish between these two forms generically. 
It should be noted that here we see color retained through a vast altera- 
tion in size, and that in this group color is apparently coincident with generic 
associations. As a matter of fact, it should be recorded that aU genus-lumpers 
are such, through association with fellow workers who generally guided them 
in the first instance by means of colour. 
In the American Ornithologists’ Union's Checklist, 3rd Ed., 1910, an 
attempt was made to utilise subgenera with the following results : 
Genus Falco — 
Subgenus Hierofalco \ 
Rhynchodon 
Tinnunculus 
Bhynchofalco 
Cerchneis. 
Such an association is not in accordance with the differences seen as 
hereafter recorded. Thus, if Rhynchodon be considered as only subgeneric to 
Falco, the others must be considered genera. 
Thus Hierofalco consists of large birds, even larger than Rhynchodon, 
with distinctly different feet : the wing formation is peculiarly similar, but 
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