24 Mr. A. llanic on Indian Ornithology. 



Jules Verreaux a small box of bird-skins containing, as I consi- 

 dered, numerous species, either altogether new, or new to our 

 Indian avifauna. 



I gave names at the time to several of these species, but was 

 well aware that they would hardly be accepted as undoubted 

 additions to our avifauna until, due comparison having been 

 made in European museums, my views received the confirmation 

 of European ornithologists. 



This necessary comparison has now been made at the Museum 

 of the Jardin des Plantes, by M. Verreaux, aided in some in- 

 stances by M. Gerbe; and I now hasten to give a brief summary 

 of its results. 



ft 9 bis^. Falco atriceps, nobis. 



("Rough notes," part. i. p. 58.) 



No satisfactory conclusion seems to me to have yet been come to 

 with regard to this species. Dr. Jerdon, who has seen nearly a 

 hundred specimens of F. peregrinator, dead and alive, is positive 

 that it is not that species. I myself have now had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining numerous specimens of this species in 

 many different stages of plumage, and agree with Dr. Jerdon. 

 M. Verreaux remarks— "I have most carefully compared your 

 Falcon with all those known to me ; and my first idea that it was 

 F. melanogenys of Gould appears to have been correct. In 

 Australia I myself have killed several specimens similar to yours ; 

 and you may therefore feel certain that this latter is really an 

 example of F. melanogenys." Per contra, F. melanogenys from 

 Australia, of which I now possess two specimens, male and 

 female, appears to be a considerably larger bird ; moreover my 

 friend Major Delme-Radcliffe, who has kept both F. melano- 

 genys and F. atriceps alive, and who has probably paid more 

 attention to live Falcons than any one now living, positively 

 affirms that F. melanogenys is a decidedly larger bird. In his 



* The numbers are those of Dr. Jerdon's work. Where the bird was 

 not included by him, I have given it as his or ter of the number of 

 that species which it appeared to follow most conveniently. I have pre- 

 tixed tt to those species which I consider altogether new, and t to those the 

 occurrence of which in India I have been, I believe, the first to establish. 



