Note 68 — Family FALCONIDÆ.—The Falcons. (continued 3)
Reading edition
Pandion haliætus, var. haliætus (Linn.). Aquila haliætus, Briss. Orn. I, 440, pl. xxxiv. Falco haliætus, Linn. S. N. I, 1766, 129. Pandion haliætus, Less. Man. Orn. I, 86. Falco arundinaceus, Gmel. 1733. Pandion fluvialis, Savign. Descr. Egyp. I, 96, 1809. Pandion alticeps and planiceps, Brehm, Vög. Deutschl. 33, 1831. Pandion indicus, Hodgs. Cat. Gray’s Misc. 81.
Specimens examined.—Nat. Mus., 3; Bost. Soc., 2; Philad. Acad., 3; other sources, 10. Total, 18.
Measurements.—♂. Wing, 18.00–18.50; tail, 8.50–8.70; culmen, 1.20–1.30; tarsus, 1.95–2.00; middle toe, 1.50–1.80. Specimens, 4. ♀. Wing, 19.50–20.50; tail, 9.00–9.50; culmen, 1.35–1.45; tarsus, 2.00–2.10; middle toe, 1.85–1.90. Specimens, 4.
Five specimens from the Palæarctic Region (including one from Japan and one from Morocco) compare with three from India as follows:—
Palæarctic specimens: Wing, 18.70–20.40; tail, 9.00–10.00; culmen, 1.28–1.35; tarsus, 2.15; middle toe, 1.75–1.80.
Indian specimens: Wing, 17.00–19.75; tail, 7.00–8.75; culmen, 1.28–1.35; tarsus, 2.00; middle toe, 1.75.
The Indian specimens are slightly darker than the northern ones. In the northern series, the smallest is one from Morocco. This has the breast as white as any Australian example, and has the head and neck above as light as in many of them. The Japanese specimen is exactly like European ones in color, but is intermediate between them and the Indian ones in size, measuring, wing, 17.50; tail, 8.80; culmen, 1.30; tarsus, 2.15; middle toe, 1.60. The smallest in the series is one from Celebes, in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Cambridge (No. 12,196). This one measures, wing, 15.20; tail, 7.50; culmen, 1.20; tarsus, 2.00; and middle toe, 1.60. In colors it approaches very closely to var. leucocephalus.