1876.] MS. " ILLUSTEATIONS OF INDIAN OENITHOLOGT." 425 



Falco lathami (Tickell *, J. A. S. B. 1833, p. 569) is incidentally alluded to in the article 

 on Limmetus cristafcllus (T.). This is the passage: — "I shot a Hawk-Eagle in 1833-3i in the 

 jungles of Seheria, Borabhoom (Bengal), which Jerdon considers may possibly be referred to this 

 species ; but of this I am very doubtful, as it was noted by me at the time as only 18 inches in 

 length. It had a fine long occipital crest, black, with white tips. Head, nape, and wing-coverts 

 clouded with ashy and rusty. Back clouded with brown. Lower parts white, with a streak of 

 black down the centre of the throat, and with rusty bars on the breast and belly. A drawing 

 made of it at the time was lost by the sinking of my boat in the Ganges ; and I have never met 

 with the bird again, although I often subsequently traversed and explored those vast forests." 



Jerdon has suggested that F. lathami, Tickell, might have been founded on a young example 

 of L. Jiieneri, or perhaps on Astur trivirgatus f . The description may have been taken from a 

 young male of L. albinigcr, a species, in adult plumage, by the way, which Colonel Tickell Ibis, 1876, 

 describes as a variety of L. cristafellus. Mr. Sharpe (Cat. Accipitres, p. 352) identifies F. lathami, ^' ^'^^' 

 and without a doubt, with Baza lophotes. There is something to be said in favour of this 

 opinion, but not enough to establish it. In favour, there is the fact that Colonel Tickell again 

 refers to F. lathami in his article on Baza lojjhotes, a species, however, of which he was ignorant 

 in the adult plumage. As the young he describes, with a note of interrogation, the bird he had 

 obtained in 1833 in Borabhoom, adding to the description the words "Tickell's Falco lathami, 

 1833." And he goes on to observe, "The above description is taken entirely from Jerdon ; for 

 the adult I have never seen, and the (by me supposed) young I lost my notes and drawing of ; 

 but a slight description was sent by me, in a ' List of Birds collected in the Jungle Mahals,' to 

 the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1833, of a bird shot by me in Seheria, Manbhoom 

 (West Bengal), which, to the best of my recollection, closely resembles Baza lophotes in an 

 immature plumage, and most certainly was not a Limnaetus, nor an Astur as suggested by 

 Jerdon." But Colonel Tickell had no pi-evious or subsequent certain knowledge of Baza lophotes 

 in any phase of plumage ; and he therefore could not possibly judge whether the bird he referred 

 to F. lathami was the young of B. lophotes or not. In opposition to Mr. Sharpe's identification, 

 we have these two inconvenient facts : first, Tickell's bird measured 18 inches in length, and in 

 expanse 40 inches ; and, secondly, the legs are described as being " clothed with short white 

 feathers to the feet, which are of a horny colour." The first character tells, and the last would 

 tell conclusively, against Colonel Tickell's bird having belonged to B. lophotes, were it not for 

 the inconsistent sentence which follows — " exposed part of the tarsi reticulated." No description 



* It is not to be concluded with any certaint)', from the way Colonel Tickell introduces this name (I. c), that he was 

 bestowing an original title of his own on an undescribed species. The internal evidence is the other way. The species is 

 the first of the list, and is entered thus : — " 1. Falco lathami. Colvy Falcon'? Latham ;" and then follows the description. 

 The Colvi/ {Coliy) Falcon of Latham is unquestionably B. loj^hotes; and on Latham's plate (G. H. i. t. 10) Mr. J. E. Gray 

 had some four years previously founded his F. lathami (Griff, ed. of Cuv. An. Eiig. Aves, i. p. 30). It is only at the third 

 species in the list that Colonel Tickell begins to bestow titles of his own ; and to the name of this species, Falco herbcecola, 

 the following footnote is attached: — "The names of such birds as have never come under my notice before, and are 

 necessarily of my own coining, I have distinguished by the addition of a T." AU through the paper the letter T is added 

 to a now title ; but it is wanting after the title F. lathami. 



t L. hiencri ad. was obtained at Oorkhia, in Singbhoom, by Colonel Tickell ; with A$tar trivirgatus he was well 

 acquainted. 



