240 Dr. T. C. Jerdon's Supplementary Notes 



is used, a dog is generally slipped as well, and, unless the ground 

 is very unfavourable, it generally secures the Hare after it has 

 been struck three or four times by the Falcon, It is not un- 

 frequently happens that the Hare is fairly lifted off the ground 

 by the impetus of the Falcon's swoop. The flight of the Cher- 

 rug after a Kite is very amusing, as the quarry makes extra- 

 ordinary exertions, by rising to a height and dodging the stoop 

 of the Falcon, to escape her inevitable capture. 



Of the published figures of this Falcon many are very imper- 

 fect, and very few show the round spots on the tail-feathers. I 

 cannot help suspecting that another species of Falcon is often 

 confounded with the true F. sacer. I first heard of this bird 

 from Colonel Delme-E,adclifFe, who wrote me that he had once 

 seen a large Falcon like the Cherrug, but with the upper plumage 

 somewhat banded and Kestrel-like. The late Dr. Scott obtained 

 a specimen (which was shot at Umballa) of a female Falcon w^hich 

 closely tallies with this notice ; and Lord Walden now possesses 

 this specimen, which I saw and took a note of at Dr. Scott's. The 

 whole upper plumage is banded with reddish isabelline on a 

 brownish grey ground ; the tail with pale rufous bars (not spots) ; 

 the moustachial streak very narrow ; lower plumage white, with 

 drops of brown on the breast, larger on the flanks and thighs, 

 and obsolete on the under tail-coverts. Length 24 inches, 

 wing 16g, tail 10, middle toe 2f. Hodgson has one drawing 

 of this bird, which might have been taken from the specimen 

 noticed ; and it appears to me that the F. sacer figured by Wolf, 

 in the ' Zoological Sketches,' must have been the same bird, and 

 not true F. sacer. 



The claws of the specimen are exceedingly blunt. I imagine 

 that it is an old bird. Should it be considered distinct, as at 

 present I must conclude, I would propose that it should retain 

 Hodgson's name of milvipes, which is quite appropriate. It will 

 be noticed that it is somewhat larger than true F. sacer. Its 

 Kestrel-like appearance is very remarkable. 



12. FaLCO BABYLONICUS*. 



This Falcon I find to be the one generally called Sliahiu in 

 * Ibis, 18G1, p. 218, t. vii. 



