THE BIEDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Falco peregrinus macropus Mathews, ib., Vol. II., p. 8, 1913. 
Rhynchodon peregrinus Mathews, List Birds Austr., p. Ill, 1913. 
Rhynchodon peregrinus macropus Mathews, ib. 
Rhynchodon peregrinus submdanogenys Mathews, ib. 
PiSTRiBUTiON. Australia ; Tasmania. 
Adult female. Entire sides of face, crown of head, hind-neck and upper mantle blackish- 
brown with pale edges to some of the feathers on the hind-neck, where the feathers 
are marked with buff towards the base and indistinct grey bars on the upper 
mantle ; lesser upper wing-coverts, remainder of the wing-cover^s, innermost 
secondaries, scapulars, back, rump, upper tail-coverts and tail blackish-brown 
barred with slate-grey, paler on the rump and upper tail-coverts where the grey 
bars are wider ; tail similar but more coarsely marked with rust-colored tips ; 
bastard-wing, primary-coverts and outer aspect of quiUs blackish-brown with 
mottled bars of buff on the inner webs and pale edges to the tips of both primary- 
and secondary-quiUs ; throat, fore-neck and upper breast pale rufous with a few 
dark shaft-lines ; lower breast, abdomen and under tail-coverts darker rufous, 
narrowly, but regularly barred with blackish-brown ; some of the long feathers on 
the flanks tinged with grey ; axiUaries and under wing-coverts cinnamon with dark 
brown bars, greater series and quill-linmg grey with pale bars tinged with cinnamon. 
Bill Hght bluish-lead colour, tip darker, cere, base of lower mandible and the comers 
of the mouth yellow ; eyes hazel, rim round the eye yeUow ; feet yellow. Total 
length 470 mm. ; culmen 23, wing 318, tail 165, tarsus 55. Figured. Collected 
at Bokarum, Plantagenet District, South-west Australia, on the 14th April, 1900, 
and is the type of Rhynchodon peregrinus submelanogenys. 
Adult male. Similar to the adult female but smaller. 
Birds from the eastern parts of Australia (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, 
Tasmania, South Australia) are not so suffused with red on the under-surface. 
They are also larger. A female from Broken HiU, New South Wales, measures 
in the wing 330. Two from Victoria 324-335. South Australia 337. 
Immature. Have practically no red on the under-surface, the feathers being buff, those 
of the thighs and abdomen having bars, those of the belly having a band, those 
of the breast having spots ; upper-surface blackish-brown with rufous edges ; an 
older bird has the centre of the head and wing-coverts brown, remainder of head 
as in the adult ; the back shows some slate-grey. 
As the bird gets older the under-surface becomes suffused with red and the 
feathers from the lower-breast to the vent are all barred, and the slate-grey becomes 
more pronounced on the upper-surface. The next moult brings them into the 
adult plumage. 
Nest. The eggs are placed on the earth under a crevice of rock ; sometimes in a hollow 
limb of a tree. 
JSggs. Clutch, two to three. Ground-colour buff, covered aU over with markings of 
reddish-brown, more thickly round the middle of the egg, but the markings are very 
varied. Axis 49-53 mm. ; diameter 40-42. 
Breeding-season. August to November. 
The first record of this fine bird appears in the Trans. Linn. 8oc. (Lond.), 
Vol. XV., p. 183, 1827, where Vigors and Horsfield called it Falco peregrinus, 
writing : “ Upon a minute comparison of the specimen before us in the 
Society’s collection, which is in a fine state of preservation, with some 
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