FALCO LANARIUS.

Lanner Falcon.

Accipriter lanarius, Briss. Orn., tom. i. p. 363.

Falco lanarius, Klein, Ova Av., p. 48.—Schleg. Rev. Crit. des Ois. d’Eur., pp. 2, 11.—Bonap. Rev. Zool., 1850,
p. 485.—Adams in Ibis, 1864, p. 10.

Feldeggu, Schleg. Abh. aus dem Geb. der Zool. &c., tabb. 10, 11; Rev. Crit. des Ois. d’Eur., io E2.

Le vrai Lanier, Buff. Hist. Nat. des Ois., tom. i. p. 243.

Brown Lanner, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. i. p. 86.—Id. Gen. Hist., vol. i. p. 84.

 

 

Tue remarks made at the commencement of my account of Falco sacer, as to the amount of confusion
which exists with regard to its synonymy, apply with equal force to the present bird, so well known to all
living European ornithologists as Fulco lanarius ; hence, for the like reasons, the list of names said to
pertain to it are sparsely given. The native country of the bird is Northern Africa, over which portion of
the globe it ranges from Morocco to Egypt, and proceeds still further eastward to Palestine, Asia Minor,
Persia, and, according to the late Mr. G. T. Vigne’s note to me, as far as the Punjab. That a bird enjoying
such vast powers of flight should not occasionally visit other countries would be contrary to probability; and
we find that it not only occasionally visits Spain, but there are recorded instances of its occurrence in
Greece and other European countries, and one at least of its being killed in England; indeed the Reviewer,
in the ‘Ibis’ for 1859, of Dr. Bree’s ‘Birds of Kurope not observed in the British Isles’ remarks that
‘The Lanner has a good claim to be included in the British list ; for Lewin’s figure in his ‘ British Birds,’
vol. 1. pl. 17, seems referable only to this species, and the subject of it was taken in Lincolnshire; but we
know of no other instance of its occurrence here unaccompanied by considerable doubt.”

Of all the Falcons I have had opportunities of becoming acquainted with in a living state, this is at once
the most beautiful and the most docile. My figure was taken with great care from a living example
perched on my arm, and which appeared to be as inquisitive and as interested in the delineation of his figure
as the draftsman himself. This fine bird is now (March 1868) living in the aviary of the Zoological
Society of London in the Regent’s Park.

A glance at my plates of Fulco sacer and Falco lanarius will furnish a better idea of the differences
of the two birds than any verbal description, however accurate. Like the former, the latter bird is
considered by the falconers a less powerful flier than the birds of the Peregrine form; and I believe it is
less courageous and sanguinary. The fact is, these two desert Falcons are of a different type, befitting them
for a different mode of life from that of the Peregrines, but equally suited for some special purpose, such as
preying upon the smaller quadrupeds as well as birds, which the Peregrine and its allies never do.

I shall now give some extracts from the writings of the ornithologists and travellers who have remarked
on this elegant bird,—a course I do not hesitate to adopt, as the furtherance of science and the promotion
of truthful knowledge is my constant aim.

‘* By far the most common of the large Falcons of Palestine,” says the Rev. H. B. Tristram, “is the
Falco lanarius. It is universally distributed throughout the rocky wadys on both sides of the Jordan and
the Dead Sea and as far north as the foot of Hermon, is a permanent resident, and, as we were told,
reoccupies the same eyrie year after year. A nest of four eggs was taken in the gorge of the Wady Kelt,
near Jericho, on the 29th of February; and the Lanner was breeding in four or five places in the Wady
Hamam and the Wady Leimun, near Gennesaret, in April. No region is too desolate or dreary for this
noble bird. On the stupendous rock of Masada, facing the Dead Sea, a Lanner dropped a Pochard Duck
on being fired at; and we also saw a pair at Jebel Usdum, the salt mountain at the south end of the lake.
It seems to avoid the forests; for though very common near the mouths of the ravines east of Jordan,
we never observed it in the vast forests of Gilead and Ajlun. It is in high repute among the Bedouins
for the chace; and trained birds are as valuable as in North Africa. But though we frequently saw it
in the possession of Arab sheikhs of high degree, we never had an opportunity of witnessing the sport, as
we only met them on the march.”

Mr. E. Cavendish Taylor says the ‘ Lanner is decidedly the most abundant of the large Falcons in Egypt,
where it breeds and is resident, I believe, all the year round. In the month of January 1864, I shot three
specimens within a short walk of Cairo.”

Mr. J. Clarke Hawkshaw informs me that when at Girgeh on the 19th of March, 1865, he “ saw a Lanner
eating a tame Pigeon on the sandbank by the water’s edge; on my approach it flew with its prey a quarter
of a mile further up the Nile, and, after being twice disturbed, retired to a mudebank in the middle of the

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