40 Major J. Biddulpli on the Birds of Gilc/it. 



blackish tinge on the grey of the head and shoulders has 

 almost entirely disappeared. 



9. Cerchnets tinnunculus (Linn.). 



A few seen all through the winter. In summer it appears 

 in great numbers, especially about harvest-time, when I have 

 counted upwards of twenty together hovering over a newly 

 reaped cornfield, hunting for mice. 



10. AsTUR PALUMBARius (Liun.) . 



A number are caught yearly in all the neighbouring valleys, 

 and higher up in the Gilgit valley ; but I never shot one, and 

 only once saw a pair, in Gilgit itself. 



White ones are occasionally caught, and considered a great 

 prize. I saw one that had been caught in Wakhan and was 

 being conveyed to Agha Khan, in Bombay. Birds in this 

 phase of plumage are called " Taighoon,^^ a name given to 

 all albinos. 



11. MicRONisus BADius (Gmel.) . 



One adult specimen shot 25th April, which apparently 

 belongs to the pale race to which Severtzoff gave the name of 

 Astur cenchroides. 



[The plumage of this specimen is in a very remarkable 

 stage : it is of a pale tone throughout ; and the ferruginous 

 bands on the upper breast are continued into a broad con- 

 spicuous collar of ferruginous buflP completely encircling the 

 neck, and contrasting with the brownish grey of the head 

 and upper back, into which it shades above and below. The 

 outer tail-feathers are banded as in the specimen described 

 by Blanford in his ' Zoology of Eastern Persia,^ no. 18, 

 p. 108, as Astur cenchroides (?) ; and the present specimen 

 agrees well Avith the description throughout, except that the 

 barring of the lower surface is narrower and closer — in this 

 respect agreeing with Indian examples of M. badius, to which 

 species it is doubtless referable. Sex male. Dimensions — 

 length 13-6 inches, expanse 32-65, wing 7*8, tail 6'5, tarsus 

 1*63, culmen 0-5, middle toe 1-15. Weight 5*25 oz. Irides 

 bright orange, cere yellowish green, legs horny green, feet 



I 



