FALCO HYPOLEUCUS,Gould.Grey Falcon.
Falco hypoleucus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 162.
Boorh-ga, Aborigines of Moore’s River in Western Australia.
Of this rare and beautiful Falcon I have seen only four examples, three of which are in my own collection, and the fourth in that of the Earl of Derby. The specimen from which my description in the “Proceedings of the Zoological Society” was taken, was presented to Mr. Gilbert by Mr. L. Burgess, who stated that he had killed it over the mountains, about sixty miles from Swan River; subsequently it was obtained by Mr. Gilbert himself in the vicinity of Moore’s River in Western Australia; and my friend Captain Sturt had the good fortune to secure a male and a female during his late adventurous journey into the interior of South Australia. “They were shot at the Depôt on a Sunday in May 1845, just after service; they had been soaring very high, but at length one descended to the trees on the creek, and coming within range was shot; when the other proceeding to look after its companion was also killed. It must be a scarce bird, for no others were seen.”
The acquisition of theFalco hypoleucusis highly interesting, as adding another species to the true or typical Falcons, and as affording another proof of the beautiful analogies which exist between certain groups of the southern and northern hemispheres; this bird being as clearly a representative of the Jerfalcon of Europe, as theFalco melanogenysis of the Peregrine, and theFalco frontatusof the Hobby; but as I have more fully entered into this subject in my observations on the genus, it is unnecessary again to detail them here.
The adult has the whole of the upper and under surface and wings grey, with a narrow line of black down the centre of each feather; a narrow ring of black nearly surrounding the eyes; primaries brownish black, which colour assumes a pectinated form on a mottled grey ground on the inner webs of those feathers; tail-coverts grey, barred with brownish grey; tail dark brownish grey, crossed with bars of dark brown; irides dark brown; cere, orbits, gape, base of the bill, legs and feet brilliant orange-yellow; the yellow becoming paler from the base of the bill, until it meets the black tips of both mandibles; claws black.
The young birds have the upper surface mottled brown and grey, and the under surface nearly white, and more strongly marked with black than in the adult.
The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size.
FALCO MELANOGENYS:Gould.J. & E. Gould del et lith.C. Hullmandel Imp.
FALCO MELANOGENYS:Gould.J. & E. Gould del et lith.C. Hullmandel Imp.
FALCO MELANOGENYS:Gould.J. & E. Gould del et lith.C. Hullmandel Imp.