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

- the dorsal side of the proximal end of the bone has got a protrusion, the end of the bone is high (proximal view), - the tubercula collateralia in plantar direction are elevated only a little bit, the proximo-plantar hollow is smaller, the crista plantaris medialis and lateralis are long but low, - the plantar edge of condylus lateralis is bending outwards in lateral direction (distal view). Falco columbarius: - the phalanx is long, - the dorsal side of the proximal end of the bone has got a protrusion, the end is high (proximal view), - the tubercula collateralia in plantar direction are elevated only a little bit, the proximo-plantar hollow is smaller, the crista plantaris medialis and lateralis are long but low, - the plantar edge of condylus lateralis is bending outwards in lateral direction (distal view), - the depressio epicondylaris medialis and lateralis are shallow. Falco tinnunculus: - the phalanx is comparatively short and thick, - the tubercula collateralia in plantar direction are elevated strongly, the proximo-plantar hollow is greater and deep, the crista plantaris medialis and lateralis are long and high, - the capitulum phalangis is narrow and high, - the condyli of the capitulum phalangis on the plantar side are connecting to the corpus on a long section (lateral view), - the depressio epicondylaris medialis and lateralis are deep, - the sulcus intercondylaris is narrow and deep. Falco vespertinus: - the phalanx is short, thin, - the proximo-plantar hollow is small in extent, the crista plantaris medialis and lateralis are short, - the capitulum phalangis is small but high (lateral view), - the sulcus intercondylaris is wide and shallow (dorsal view). Falco naumanni: - the phalanx is short, - the proximo-plantar hollow is small in extent, the crista plantaris medialis and lateralis are short, - the capitulum phalangis is small but high (lateral view), - the sulcus intercondylaris is wide and shallow. Phalanx 2 digiti 3 posterior The phalanx 2 dig. 3 post, in the Hobby is especially long, and thin. In the Merlin a bit shorter, the two species can usually be separated on the basis of the length of the phalanx. The phalanx of the Kestrel is considerably shorter, its size does not overlap with that of the former species. It is so short that usually only 0.6-0.7 mm longer than the phalanx of the Red-footed Falcon. The phalanx of the Lesser Kestrel is even shorter than that of the Red-footed Falcon's (Plate XXXI, Figure 1). The corpus phalangis - compared to its length - is narrowest in the Hobby, a bit thicker in the Merlin, and thickest in the Lesser Kestrel (Plate XLV, Figures 9-13). The GL/CW ratio safely 58