All that I am able to communicate respecting this rare species of Falcon
is that I have seen four examples, which were killed in South Australia;
no particulars of its habits have yet been recorded: it was observed by
Captain Sturt during his expedition into the interior of that country,
and he has favoured me with a note, in which he says, “This well-shaped
and rapid bird was killed at the Depôt, where both male and female were
procured, but it was by no means common, only two others having been
seen.”
It is a fine and powerful species, and is doubtless very destructive to
birds and the smaller quadrupeds.
The entire plumage dark sooty brown, becoming paler on the edges of the
feathers of the upper surface; chin whitish; irides dark brown; cere
yellow; bill lead-colour; legs and feet leaden yellow; claws black.
The figure represents a female, which is one-third larger than the male,
of the natural size.
[Illustration:
FALCO FRONTATUS: _Gould_.
_J. & E. Gould del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
FALCO FRONTATUS, _Gould_.
White-fronted Falcon.
_Falco frontatus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 139.
_Wow-oo_, Aborigines of the Murray in Western Australia.
_Little Falcon_, Colonists of Western Australia.
This, one of the least of the true Falcons found in Australia, is
universally spread over the southern portion of that country, including
Van Diemen’s Land and the islands in Bass’s Straits. As its long pointed
wings clearly indicate, it possesses great and rapid powers of flight;
and I have frequently been amused by pairs of this bird following my
course over the plains for days together, in order to pounce down on the
Quails as they rose before me. If I had wished to witness Falconry in
perfection I could not have had a better opportunity than on these
occasions, when it was interesting to observe how instinctively the
Falcons performed their gyrations just above the dogs, in preparation
for the stoop; and on those vast plains where there was not a tree or
any other object to obstruct either the flight of the bird or our view
of the chase, nothing could be more beautiful in its way than the
actions of this species when pursuing the swift-flying Quail, which,
although quickly overtaken, often evades the stroke of its enemy by
suddenly dropping to the ground among the grasses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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