Ornithology of Gil git. 417 



oval spots on tlie centre tail-feathers left no doubt that it 

 was a true Saker. 



7. Falco subbuteo, Linn. 



The Hobby is very common in Gilgit at 5000 feet, on 

 arrival, from the end of April to the second week in May, 

 and again on its way southwards from the last week in Sep- 

 tember to the middle of October. 



Out of eleven specimens preserved, only three are fully 

 adult. Two males, shot in autumn, are changing from a 

 dark brown upper plumage to the slaty colour of the adult ; 

 they have rich ferruginous thighs and under tail-coverts ; and 

 the uropygials are regularly barred across both webs. Six 

 immature birds all want the rich rufous thighs and under 

 tail-coverts of the adult, are more broadly streaked on the 

 lower surface, have the under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 more rufous, and all have pale margins to the feathers of the 

 upper surface ; only one of these specimens has faint bars on 

 the uropygials. Of the eleven specimens, therefore, only 

 three have the uropygials barred ; and these exceptions are 

 males. 



"*- 8. Falco ^salon, Tunst. 



The Merlin, according to my observation, is only found in 

 Gilgit in winter, and is not common. Considerable difference 

 of opinion has prevailed about the plumage of the fully adult 

 female in this species, Mr. Sharpe having stated, in the first 

 volume of the British-Museum Catalogue, that the adult 

 female is blue-grey above, like the male, while Mr. Dresser 

 has taken some pains to prove, in his ' Birds of Europe,^ that 

 this is not the case. The evidence of the Gilgit specimens 

 is entirely in favour of Mr. Sharpe's view, as I shall now 

 show. 



It will be noticed that in Major Biddulph's note on this 

 species he mentions a female with the wing 8"85 inches, and 

 says that it is much paler than the male [adult] specimen ; 

 he adds, " the blackish tinge on the grey of the head and 

 shoulders has almost entirely disappeared.^"* On the 10th 

 December I shot a female, as proved on dissection by myself, 



