thirds of the ta il; second quill feather longest; first and third nearly equal,
and rather shorter than the second; the extremity of the tail slightly rounded.
DIMENSIONS.
Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines.
Length from the tip of the bill to the Length of the tarsus............. ............. 1 1
end of the tail........................ 7 0 Length of middle toe............. ............. 0 9
of the bill from the angle of the Length of hinder toe............. ............. 0
mouth ................................... 0 9
of the wings when folded........ 4 • 3
of the tail................................ 3 0
In the female, the scapulars and the back are deep chesnut brown; in
other respects the colours are similar to those of the male. In point of
size there is a little difference, the female being nearly eight inches and a half
in length.
Only three specimens of this elegant little Falcon were procured by the expedition party, and
those nearly in the same spot, among some large mimosa trees a little to the eastward of Old
Latakoo. None of them were ever observed soaring like other falcons, and the few individuals
that were seen were either perched upon the lowermost branches of the trees, or in the act of
flying from one tree to another. Considering that this bird was never afterwards procured or
even seen more to the eastward, it is probable that the proper habitat of the species will be
found in the opposite direction, which I am the more inclined to believe, as one of our party
declared he had seen it upon the borders of the Kalahari desert during an excursion we made
to the westward of New Latakoo. In the stomachs of two were found the remains of small
birds, and in the third, portions of a lizard, and different parts of coleopterous insects.
If we are to admit Le Faucon a calotte noir of Levaillant, Ois. d’Afrique, pi. 29, (Falco
tib ia lis , Daud.) to be a native of South Africa, we have now eight species of true Falcons
inhabiting that part of the globe ; viz.
Falco rupicolus, Daud. Falco tibialis, Daud.
rupicoloides, Smith. Chicquera, Le Valliant.
biarmicus, Temm. Subbuteo, Lin.
peregrinus, Lin. semitorquatus, Smith.
The four species in the first column occur in almost every district of the country which has yet
been explored; the fifth species, if it has a place in South Africa, must be very confined in its range,
as I have never either met it myself, nor seen it in collections made by others. The sixth species
was for the first time discovered during the movements of the expedition between the principal
branches of the Orange river, and it was not until that discovery I could persuade myself
that Levaillant had correctly ranked it as an African bird. The seventh is rarely procured, and
I have never seen specimens at any great distance from Cape Town. The eighth probably
never reaches the latitude of the colony.