454 M. Sundevall on the Birds of Calcutta. 



XLVIII. — The Birds of Calcutta, collected and described by 

 Carl J. Sundevall*. 



[Continued from p. 407.] 



58. Falco tinnunculus, L. 



Our common Kestril is also indigenous in Bengal. I recog- 

 nised it once clearly, but procured none in that country. A 

 young male however was taken December 5 on board ship, near 

 the equator in the Indian Ocean, about 100 miles from Ceylon % 

 and another young specimen was sent home from Java by the 

 forementioned Dr. Mellerborg. Both these birds showed, on a 

 comparison with Swedish specimens of the second year, not the 

 slightest difference either in colour or dimensions. This, like 

 all small species of hawks or falcons, is called in Bengal Sikhrie, 

 like the cuckoo (supra, no. 46). The same name is employed by 

 Levaillant (Ois. Afr. no. 30) for a falcon which seems to be but 

 slightly different from the year-old F. tinnunculus. He calls it 

 Chiquera from a label which a Frenchman at Chandernagor had 

 attached to the bird. This is evidently the same name, whose 

 pronunciation has been somewhat differently modified. One may 

 detect the same name changed in many other ways. For instance, 

 under Cuculus no. 6 in Lath. Gen. Hist., it is written Sercea, 

 Sirkeer, and Surkool. We may hence judge of the value of our 

 information on the language of the natives, especially when they 

 come through England ; all the three names quoted, when pro- 

 nounced in the English manner, are more like the correct sound 

 than is apparent from the spelling. 



59. Falco peregrinator, sp. nov. (obs. non ad Calcutta visus). 

 Niger ; subtus ferrugineus, antice pallidior : pectore longitudina- 



liter nigro-maculato, abdomine, crisso, tibiisque irregulariter nigro- 

 fasciatis; cauda alas superante. (Maxime affinis F. peregrino.) 



°. (in Mari indico d. 19 Junii) superne tota, cum alis, lateribus 

 capitis usque infra oculos et macula genarum, latiori quam in F. pe- 

 regrino, pure nigra, absque marginibus pallidis plumarum. Super- 

 cilia nulla distincte colorata. Gula et collum antice albido-ferru- 

 ginea striolis tenuibus nigris : colore rufo et latitudine striolarum 

 deorsum auctis. Latera corporis, venter, tectrices alse inferiores et 

 tibiae crebre, saturate rufo nigroque maculato fasciata. Ala? nigra? : 

 remiges maculis pogonii interioris transversis, fulvis. Penna l a et 

 3 a sequales. Rectrices fere sequales, nigra?, margine apicis albidae ; 

 pogonium internum maculis 9 angustis, transversis rufescentibus ; 

 pogonium externum maculis obsoletis, cinerascenti micantibus. 

 Pedes validissimi, toti flavi. Rostrum fuscescens. Cera et orbita 



* Translated from the ' Physiographiska Sallskapets Tidskrift' by H. E. 

 Strickland, M.A. 



f The following day Cypselus affinis (supra, no. 40) was procured. 



