Folia Historico-Naturalia Musei Matraensis - A Mátra Múzeum Természetrajzi Közleményei 21. (1996)

F.subb. F.col. F.eleon. F.tinn. F.vesp. Fnaum. d 11 16 _ 17 10 2 Ulna ? 7 21 25 14 1 7 2 1 15 7 2 d 11 17 _ 14 10 2 Carpometacarpus ? 7 21 25 14 1 ? 2 14 7 1 d 14 15 1 22 11 3 Sternum ? 10 21 23 13 2 ? 3 2 2 16 7 1 d 14 16 1 20 11 2 Pelvis ? 11 20 28 12 2 7 2 2 2 14 6 1 d 13 16 1 21 11 3 Femur ? 11 21 26 14 2 ? 2 2 15 7 1 d 11 16 _ 13 9 2 Tibiotarsus ? 6 20 25 14 1 7 2 1 14 8 1 d 11 17 _ 14 10 2 Tarsometatarsus ? 7 20 25 14 1 7 2 13 7 1 The localities of the material is very varied. The Hobby skeletons originated from North and Central Europe. More than half of the Merlin skeletons belong to the Swedish Natural History Museum, and hence their localities are North European, and mostly Scandinavian. The rest is mainly Central European, but some specimens originate from Great Britain, Greece, and from the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg. The localities of the Eleonora's Falcons are unknown. The Kestrels with the exceptions of three Polish specimens, and the Red-footed Falcons totally originate from Hungary. The localities of the Lesser Kestrel specimens are Spain, Greece and Turkey. METHODS This work begins with a general part, where I describe some osteomorphological characteristics of the Falco genus. The detailed results of my study are given in the following order: Descriptive part: I discuss bone by bone the ratios of measurements of each species, and the use of ratio values, then I compare the morphological features. Finally I shortly characterise each species and describe the main characteristics. Graphs and diagrams. Drawings. Tables of measurements and the ratio values. The anatomical names follow the nomenclature of BAUMEL (1979). Where I couldn't find the name of the discussed anatomical part in this work I followed BALLMANN (1969), LANGER (1980), OTTO (1981) or SCHMIDT-BURGER (1982), these names are always <s