Letters, Announcements, ^c. 365 



I have besides seen some Shaheens in North-west India, notably 

 one that I caught at Futtehghur, on the Ganges, in 1866, quite 

 as blue as any Peregrine of the dark variety I ever met with. 

 While on the subject of local differences between birds of one 

 species, I may mention that I know of two parishes in Hert- 

 fordshire adjoining one another, in which the Partridges [Perdix 

 cinerea) differ so considerably that after a day^s shooting an 

 experienced eye will separate the birds according to the ground 

 they were killed on. One of these parishes contains hilly 

 ground with light chalky soil ; the other lies low, and the soil 

 is heavy clay. 



I do not see that the Australian Falcon, F. melanogenys, is 

 allied to F. peregrinator . It is considerably larger, with the 

 proportions of the Peregrine, not the large beak and feet of F. 

 •peregrinator and F. babylonicus. With regard to the curious 

 Bat-killing habit of the Shaheens, it is to be noticed that they 

 do not kill them to eat ; and I have seen a hungry Shaheen 

 refuse them. I have frequently seen F. peregrinator and F. 

 babylonicus, after taking perch for the night with distended 

 crops, dashing off again and again after a Bat, returning in 

 a minute or so with it in the feet to the perch, and soon 

 dropping it dead below, till darkness put at end to their sport. 

 Except in the case of one tiercel Peregrine, which when flying at 

 the lure one evening at Moradabad, suddenly left the lure to 

 make some fifty stoops at a passing Bat, I never saw a Pere- 

 grine, wild or tame, look at a Bat ; and at the time this tiercel 

 was very keen, and eager to fly at any thing he might see. 



Falco sacer. 



I concur with Dr. Jerdon in believing that this Falcon is 

 never seen in Cashmere. I could not hear of it in that country. 

 The Falcon alluded to by Dr. Jerdon, about which I wrote to 

 him, was certainly larger than any Cherrug I ever saw ; and at 

 the time I had this one I had many large Cherrugs in my pos- 

 session. She was marked all over the upper parts and back 

 exactly like a female Kestrel ; her breast was white, with few 

 markings on the sides, and a very few bell-shaped spots. The 

 present Ameer of Cabul, Shere Ali, informed me that F. sacer 



SER. III. VOL. I. 2 c 



