imagines that the statement of its breeding in Ceylon, made
by Mr. Layard, has also arisen in error. De Filippi met
with it in Persia, and Canon Tristram in Palestine, where he
says that it occurs in suitable places at all times of the year.
In Egypt it is a pretty common winter-visitant, according to
Dr. von Heuglin, who states that it follows the course of
the Nile to lat. 10° N. and thence extends into Kordofan and
Abyssinia. Sir William Jardine has a specimen from
Mozambique, and it has been recorded, but probably in
error, from Madagascar. In South Africa it occurs, and the
Norwich Museum contains specimens from Natal and the
Cape Colony, but it is probably only an accidental visitor in
this part of the world, where its place is occupied by Falco
minor, a very distinct form. I t does not seem to have been
met with anywhere in West Africa, but was more than once
observed by M. Bertholet in the Canaries. On the coast
of North Africa it again appears, but in the interior of the
country it is represented by F. barbarus. In America, it
has long been a matter of doubt whether the Falcon, which
there admittedly represents F. peregrinus, should be considered
specifically distinct from it or not, and the birds from
the eastern side of the country have been separated under
the name of F. anatum, while those from the west have
borne that of F. nigriceps; but of late the tendency on the
part of the most competent judges has certainly been to
unite the Common Falcon of the New World with that of the
Old. I t may be true that, as a rule, the eastern portion of
the dominion of Canada and of the United States is inhabited
by a bird which is generally larger and somewhat
darker than that of Europe and Asia, and the western portion
by a slightly smaller race still more deeply coloured, hut
the differences are by no means constant, and examples are
to be found on either side of the Atlantic which entirely
agree with each other. Under this view of the case, then, it
may be said that the Peregrine Falcon inhabits suitable
localities throughout the whole of the New World, from Port
Kennedy, at the most northern point of the American continent
(whence specimens not to be distinguished from English
examples were brought by Dr. David Walker, the naturalist
of the ‘ Fox ’ expedition), to Mendoza, in the territory of the
Argentine Confederation. It may be observed, however, that in
the western part of South America, Chili for instance, a Falcon
is met with which is much allied to, if not identical with, the
F. melanogenys before mentioned. In Greenland, the Peregrine
Falcon not only occurs, but constantly breeds.
The whole length of an adult Peregrine Falcon is from
fifteen to eighteen inches, depending on the sex of the bird.
The beak is blue, approaching to black at the p o in t; the cere
and eyelids yellow, the irides dark hazel-brown; the top of
the head, back of the neck, space below the eye and a broad
mystacial patch, nearly black; the back, wing-coverts, and
tail, bluish-slate or ash-colour, barred with a darker t in t ;
the primaries brownisli-black, the inner webs barred and
spotted with rufous-white; the throat white, with dark
longitudinal lines; the breast rufous-wliite, with dark brown
transverse b ars; the flanks, under tail-coverts, and the
tail-feathers beneath, barred transversely with dark brown
and greyish-white; legs and toes yellow, the claws black.
The figure here given was taken from a very fine female of
large size, in its second year, but still retaining one outer
tail-feather of the first year on each side. The wing and
tail-feathers are not changed in the Falconidce in their first
autumn.
The young, until the first moult, have the head and upper
surface of the body and wing-coverts of a brownish asli-
colour, the edge of each feather rufous; the under side of
the body dirty-white, with dark longitudinal streaks; the
tail with irregular reddish bars, the tip white. The cere
and eyelids blue; the feet yellow. The first moult begins
in April or May, and proceeds gradually through the
summer.
This species presents very considerable individual variation,
though perhaps not to the same extent as the preceding.
The birds which are darkest in the immature plumage, are
darkest also in the adult stage; while those which are of a
light colour when young, are light when old. The feathers