FALCO. 



421 



(Uniformly coloured brown ; tail-feathers brown, with a whitish 

 tip, generally with round or oval white spots on both webs, but 

 .occasionally 'the middle feathers are unspotted (as in F. ,ju(jger), 

 and sometimes the spots become on the outer rectrices imperfect 

 bands interrupted at the shaft; lower parts white, with large 

 elongate brown spots on the breast and abdomen and larger spots 

 .on the flanks and thigh-coverts ; with age the spots grow smaller, 

 rounder, and more scattered, especially on the breast. 



Young birds do not differ greatly from old, except that the 

 brown spots on the lower plumage are much more developed, and 

 <;over the greater part of the breast and abdomen ; the head, too, is 

 sometimes brov\m, and a moustachial stripe is usually well marked ; 

 the middle tail-feathers are often unspotted at first. 



Bill pearly white, tipped black ; cere, legs, and feet dull yellow 

 in old birds, greyish green in the young ; irides dark brown, or 

 brownish yellow or yellow. 



Length" of a female about 22; tail 9 ; wing 15-5; tarsus 2-2 ; 

 :.m id-toe without claw 2 ; bill from gape 1-45 : length of a male 

 ]9-5 ; tail 8 ; wing 14-5. 



Distribution. From Eastern and South-eastern Europe, through 

 Central Asia to China. This Falcon visits the Punjab in the cold 

 •season, and is common west of the Indus and also in the Sirsa 

 district, a few birds straying into Sind and the N.W. Provinces. 

 The locality Nepal, in the British Museum Catalogue, is probably 

 due to a mistake, as in the similar case of F. harharus. 



Habits, 4-c. This is distinctly a desert species, and, according to 

 .Terdon, it feeds in the Punjab very much on Uromastix liardivickvi, 

 a lizard only found in dry and barren regions. Many Saker 

 Falcons are captured and trained to strike hares and even gazelles, 

 .cranes, and Houbara bustard, herons, and kites {Milvus govinda). 

 It may be recollected that in France and Great Britain the Kite 

 .{M. ictinus) was of old the grandest quarry for the best Falcons 

 (Peregrines). The Saker is not known to breed in India. It 

 usually nests on trees, and lays four eggs, slightly elongate, but of 

 the usual Falcon type. 



1259. Falco milvipes. The SJianghar Falcon. 

 Falco milvipes, Ilodgs. in Grmfs Zool. Misc. p. 81 (1844), descr, 



nulla ; Jerdon, Ibis, 1871, p. 240 ; Gurnei/, Ibis, 1882, p. 445. 

 Falco hendersoni, Hume, Ibis, 1871, p. 407 ; Hume and Henders. 



Lah. to Yark. p. 171, pi. i; Hume, S. F. ii, p. 530; vni, p. 186 ; 



id. Cat. no. 10 bis ; Scully, S. F. iv, p. 117 ; Brooks, S. F. v, p. 48. 

 Hierofalco hendersoni, Hume, S. F. vii, p. 327. 

 Hierofalco milvipes, Sharpe, Yark. Miss., Aves, pp. 11, 150. 



Coloration. Adult. Crown brown, the feathers with broad 

 rufous margins, still broader and mixed with buff on the nape ; 

 .cheek-stripe black, ill-defined ; lores and forehead whitish. Upper 

 plumage and tail brown, with rufous cross-bars throughout (some- 

 what as in a female Kestrel) ; inner webs of primaries mostly 

 ^covered by confluent white bars, except near the tips of the 



