75 
and later, in March and April in the wheat fields, the Falcons 
always joined the party. On seeing the first Quail rise, they 
would fly towards us, and hover round us, until another was 
flushed, when they would both come down with one long well 
directed swoop. If the Quail were taken, both would fly off with 
it, if they failed they would wait for the next. When, as often 
happened, the Quail seeing the Falcons above, flew for a short dis- 
tance only, and then suddenly dropt; they (the Quails) were 
invariably caught by the Dogs, as they would never rise a second 
time after having once been stooped at by the Falcons. This 
kind of sport used to last for several minutes and sometimes for 
half an hour, the pair of wild Falcons hovering above us all the 
time in perfect circles at a height considerably out of shot of my 
gun, though for that matter, had they come ever so close, nothing 
would have induced me to kill one of them. Hvery time I went 
shooting, or even to exercise the Dogs, these birds invariably 
appeared, and would join the party sometimes long before the 
first Quail was flushed. This did not happen once or twice or 
even during one or two seasons, it was regularly the case for the 
four or five successive years, that I remember the birds returning 
to their favourite tree.” 
This curious trait indicates pretty clearly, the manner in 
which the idea of training Falcons may first have arisen in the 
earlier and ruder ages of the world. 
Tyros are always, in India, labouring under the delusion, that 
in the Laggar, in its different stages of plumage, they have 
different species. Ihave had F. Jugger in one stage or another 
sent me as Peregrinus, Perigrinator and Babylonicus (the latter 
repeatedly). Iwill endeavour to give such a description, as shall 
prevent these kind of mistakes in future. 
In the young birds of the year, the whole of the upper plum- 
age, except the nape and head, is a nearly uniform umber brown, 
darker on the primaries, margined paler on the wing coverts 
and back, and with a more or less observable tinge of bluish on 
the tail feathers. In young birds, the tail feathers and coverts 
are often much abraded and almost sandy in hue. ‘The fore- 
head is white, the feathers black shafted, and the white is con- 
tinued more or less distinctly over the eye, for the length of 
about an inch and a half, as a sort of supercilium. The whole 
of the top of the head and occiput, have the brown feathers 
darker centered and faintly edged, with a more rufous brown. 
The lores are covered with whitish hair, in some, more or less 
involved in the dark stripe under the eye. Below the orbit, a 
dark brown streak commences, which, when most clearly seen, 
divides at the gape, and being prolonged backwards under and 
