“Adult female.—Similar to the male, but larger. Length, 183; wing, 117; tail, 70; culmen (from cere to tip), 13; tarsus, 22. The type of the female is from the Island of Samar.” (Grant.)
Grant’s falconet is a species of doubtful validity, but the name may be retained until more specimens have been examined. In M. erythrogenys the white bars on the primaries are due to immaturity and are not characteristic of the typical adult male.
Genus FALCO Linnæus, 1758.
Bill stout, culmen strongly curved from front of cere to tip; a well-marked tooth in edge of upper mandible; wings long and pointed, second primary longest, the first and third but little shorter; first primary with a deep notch near its tip; legs, feet, and claws strong, middle toe long; tarsus covered on all sides with small hexagonal scales. The falcons are powerful birds, strong and rapid in flight, and easily recognized by the rapid motion of the wings.
Species.
- a1. Much larger; wing more than 300
mm.
- b1. Light color from breast extending forward below ear-coverts and partly separating a blackish band on side of throat from black of side of head. peregrinus (p. [240])
- b2. Light color of breast not invading the auricular region, the entire side of head, sides of throat, and ear-coverts being black.
- a2. Much smaller; wing less than 250 mm. severus (p. [243])
198. FALCO PEREGRINUS Tunstall.
PEREGRINE FALCON.
- Falco peregrinus Tunstall, Ornithologia Britannica (1771), 1; Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 273; Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1895), 3, 415; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1902), 2, 296; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 44.
- Falco communis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1874), 1, 376.
Batan (Edmonds); Calayan (McGregor); Camiguin N. (McGregor); Catanduanes (Whitehead); Fuga (Whitehead); Luzon (Steere Exp., McGregor); Mindanao (Steere Exp.); Mindoro (Everett); Negros (Steere Exp.); Palawan (Whitehead, Platen, White). Northern America, Europe, Asia; in winter, Africa and Indian Peninsula.