1917-] Nidification of some Indian Falconid<2. 351 



rather pale specimen of true A. n. nisus as far east as Blianio, 

 the skin being duly identified by Hartert, and the specimen 

 itself is now in the Tring Museum; to the south it has been 

 taken certainly as far as the Neilgherries. 



Accipiter nisus melanoschistos. 

 The Eastern Sparrow-Hawk. 



I have never personally taken the nest or eggs of this 

 Hawk, nor do I think it ever works its way south of the 

 Brahmapootra River, though I found it not uncommon in 

 the hills on the northern bank. Its best-known haunts 

 within Indian limits are the North-West Himalayas from 

 Baluchistan to Nepal. It extends, however, through Sikkim, 

 Bhutan, the Mishmi and Abor Hills into the Shan States 

 and Chin Hills, and indeed as far as Formosa {Hartert). 



Harington found it in Bhamo in April, so it was evidently 

 nesting there, and probably it breeds wherever found, 

 though it may straggle beyond its usual limits in the 

 cold weather. 



It is known to nest up to at least 8000 or 9000 feet in 

 the Punjab Himalayas, but it probably will be found to 

 breed far higher even than this. I have had eggs sent me 

 from Gyantse in Tibet, taken at over 12,000 feet, which 

 were undoul)tedly those of a Sparrow-Hawk of some kind, 

 but unfortunately no skin was sent with the eggs, so that 

 it is impossible to say to which form the eggs should be 

 attributed. 



In the Punjab and United Provinces, and in the North- 

 West Frontier Province it breeds freely at heights over 

 4000 feet, but there is little on record about it, as, for the 

 most part, our tield-naturalists have not discriminated 

 between the western and eastern forms of Sparrow-Hawk. 



Whitehead (Bombay Nat. Hist. Journal, xxi. p. 306) 

 quoting Donald, says : — 



" This species breeds freely in Tirah, which lies just north 

 of our limits, and every autumn some thirty or forty indi- 

 viduals are caught along the Kachai stream by drop-nets set 



