BLACK-CHEEKED FALCON. 
European specimens of this species, we can discover no material difference 
between them. The native name of this bird is Wolga. The eyes, Mr. Caley 
observes, are of a bluish-black, the irides having a faint shade of hazel-brown 
in a strong light.” 
Sharpe, in the Hist. Coll. Nat. Hist. Brit. Mus., Vol. II., p. 112, 1906, 
however, has recorded : 
“ No. 19. Hooded Falcon, Latham MS. 
“ This is Baloo melanogenys Gould. Latham does not seem to have given 
a Latin name to the drawing. Watling’s MS. note is : ‘ Half the natural 
size. It lives on small birds and fish, etc.’ ” 
This refers to Watling Drawing No. 19, which is a good representation 
of this species, and the painting was made about 1790. It is curious that 
Latham never recognised the painting as that of a Peregrine nor gave it a 
name. Consequently it was not until 1837 that a peculiar name was bestowed 
upon the Australian form, when it simultaneously received two. Gould 
called it Falco melanogenys, while Swainson named it Falco macropus. The 
former name has been commonly accepted until very recently, as detailed 
under Falco longipennis. Research showed that though both descriptions 
were prepared in 1837, quite independently of each other, neither was 
published until 1838, and whereas Swainson’s name was published on the 
1st January, 1838, Gould’s did not appear at the earliest until April of the 
same year. Consequently the accustomed name melanogenys must be rejected 
in favour of the prior name macropus. 
Under the name Falco melanogenys Gould wrote ; “ What the Peregrine 
Falcon is to the continent of Europe and England, the Falco minor is to 
South Africa, the F. peregrinoides to the peninsula of India, and the Black- 
cheeked Falcon to Australia. All these species are of the same t3rpe ; 
but I agree with Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte and Professor Kaup 
in considering them to be distinct and representatives of each other in the 
respective countries they inhabit. The Duck-Hawk of America {F. anakim), 
as its trivial name implies, strikes down the Anas ohscura, while the 
Peregrine {F. peregrinus) of Europe indulges a like taste by now and then 
taking a Mallard {Anas hoschas) ; and Gilbert states that he has seen the 
Australian bird carry off a Nyroca australis — a species at least as heavy 
again as itself. . . . When I visited the colony in 1839 it was universally 
dispersed over the whole southern portion of Australia and Tasmania, 
and probably future research will discover that its range extends over aU 
parts of the continent. It gives preference to steep rocky cliffs and the 
sides of precipitous gullies rather than to fertile and woodland districts, 
but especially seeks such rocky localities as are washed by the sea, or 
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