FALCONINZ. 11 
ively to know this, for immediately a Peregrine appears in sight, 
they betake themselves to the water with the utmost speed they 
are capable of, the hindmost generally falling a victim to the 
Peregrine’s superior powers of flight. 
Nothing certain appears to be known concerning its nidification 
in this country, but it is strongly suspected to breed on the banks 
of the Cabool and Swatrivers. I have myself seen young birds 
offered for sale at Kotri, Sind: these birds were said to have 
been obtained from nests on the banks of the Indus. 
Falco perigrinator, Sund. 
9.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 25; Butler, Guzerat ; Stray 
Feathers, Vol. III, p. 443; Deccan and South Mahratta 
country; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 370; Swinhoe and 
Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 55; Hume’s Scrap “Book, 
p. 55. 
THE SHAHEEN FALconN. 
Shahin, Hin. 
g. Length, 1487; wing, 11°49; tail, 6; tarsus, 1-85 ; bill from 
gape, 1-1. ; 
2. Length, 18; wing, 13°5 ; tail, 6:25. 
Bill bluish, black at tip; irides brown; cere, orbits, legs and 
feet yellow ; claws, black. 
Young bird with the upper parts and cheek-stripe very dark 
cinereous, or dusky-blackish, darkest on the head, hind-neck and 
cheek-stripe, most of the feathers narrowly edged with rufous, 
those of the back and rump more broadly so; occasionally: the 
forehead is somewhat rufous, and there is always a patch on the 
nape, where it forms a sort of crucial mark ; tail paler than the 
rest. of the body, faintly barred with rufous, and tipped with the 
same ; chin and throat pale rufous-yellow, almost white in some 
birds and unspotted ; cheeks the same, with narrow dark stripes ; 
the rest of the body beneath bright rufous or chesnut, with 
longitudinal dark-brown stripes on the lower breast and the mid- 
dle of the abdomen ; oblong spots on the sides, and arrow-shaped 
markings on the lower abdomen, vent and under tail-coverts ; 
under wing-coverts rufous, with dark brown bars; the quills bar- 
red with rufous on their inner webs. 
The old bird has the head, nape, and cheek-stripe almost black ; 
back and upper parts slaty, ight on the rump, and almost with- 
out any markings ; chin, throat, and upper breast white ; the rest 
of the plumage beneath rufous or chesnut, almost unspotted. 
The changes of plumage from the young bird consists in the 
head, gradually becoming darker; the back (and the ramp more 
especially) becoming lighter and more slaty-blue, and in the 
markings of the lower surface gradually disappearing from the 
crop downwards with each successive moult. Individuals vary 
a good deal in the amount of white on the chin and throat, and 
