122 Letters, Announcements, &^c. 



grinator runs decidedly smaller than F. peregrinus. The wing 

 of the male above mentioned is only 11"5 inches; and though 

 Dr. Jerdon gives 13*5 as the length of the wing in a female, 

 a very fine one that I shot near Lahore measured only 12*9. 



There is a specimen, as pointed out by Mr. Guvney [Ibis, 

 1866, pp. 235, 236], in the British Museum which must closely 

 resemble Herr von Pelzeln's bird and that which I have de- 

 scribed. And there is another, mentioned by Dr. Jerdon, in the 

 Asiatic Society's Museum, which is also of much the same type ; 

 but in all the intense blackness (as compared with any stage of 

 F. peregrinus) of the head, nape, upper back and cheek- stripe, 

 the buff or rufous base of many of the nape-feathers, the more 

 numerous and, compared with individuals of the same age, nar- 

 rower white or rufous bars on the inner web of the first primary, 

 together with the smaller size, at once separate them as F. pe- 

 regrinator from the true F. peregrinus. 



If any one says that F. peregrinator is not worthy of specific 

 separation, I reply, wait till you fly the bird. Work one against 

 the best F. peregrinus, and mark how much greater the rapidity 

 of the flight, and above all of the swoop of the " Shaheen," em- 

 phatically the " Royal " Falcon of the East. If greater powers 

 of flight, combined with constant distinctions of plumage, such 

 as I have above noted, and difi'erence of habitat (for F. pere- 

 grinator breeds freely in Central and Southern India, F. pere- 

 grinus never, I believe) are not sufficient to constitute a species, 

 we may at once have done with scientific nomenclature in 



ornithology. I am, &c., 



Allan Hume. 



Simla, 6tli October, 1868. 

 Sir, — The several phases of plumage that the young of many 

 birds assume induces me to send you a brief notice of a few in 

 my collection, which may not be altogether uninteresting. I 

 have shot nearly the whole of the specimens to which my remarks 

 refer myself, and so feel perfectly satisfied as to their sex, which 

 was in every case ascertained by dissection. 



TuRDUS HODGSONi, Lafr. ; Jerdon, B. Ind. No. 368. 



1. 6 juv., from Cashmere. Length 11*5 in., bill from gape 



