150 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. [Ibis, 



In my oi)iuioii Falco 2ierep'inator does not breed in the 

 N.W. Frontier Province, but is replaced tliere by the Red- 

 cap Shahin, Falco babylonicus . Unfortunately I have not 

 been able to obtain the part of ' Vogel der palaarktischen 

 Fauna' which deals with the Falconidse, so use this name 

 under favour of correction. It should be remembered that 

 this is the bird which many Indian ornithologists write of 

 as Falco barbarus. 



My evidence so far is not good, but it seems to be better 

 than the evidence in favour of F. perep'inator. 



Hume says (' Scrapbook/ p. 79) — under Falco baby- 

 lonicus : — " It breeds^ I know, in or close to the Peshawar 

 valley, as well as in Cashmere/' Cashmere is, in my 

 opinion, the meeting ground of the two races. 



Again [loc. cit. p, 84) he says :— " Major Delme RadclifFe, 

 our best Indian Falconer, tells me that the back in this 

 species becomes very pale slaty from age, the red of the 

 head becomes slightly paler, but the rufous colour of 

 the breast is maintained, or becomes deeper. la some he 

 has seen the head as red as that of the Torumbee [TAtlio- 

 falco chiguera). He found it breeding near Murree." 

 From this description there is no doubt that the species 

 referred to as breeding at Murree was F. babylonicus. 



Again, on the same page he quotes Dr. Jerdon as 

 follows: — "This is the common Shahin of the Punjab 

 Falconers. In the cold weather it visits the plains of 

 the Punjab, N.W.P. and Oude." 



In this last sentence we have, in my opinion, the key to 

 the mistake which has been passed along from ornithologist 

 to ornithologist. Much of our information about the dis- 

 tribution of the larger Falcons comes directly or indirectly 

 from Falconers. The native falconer uses, describes, and 

 talks about a Shahin, and his master, looking up the books 

 for a name to give a semi-scientific flavour to his account, 

 finds ''The Shahin Falcon, Falco pereprinator," and writes 

 accordingly ; thus much information relating to Falco baby- 

 lonicus is put down in compilations to Falco peregriyiator. 



I have in my service at present, and have had from 1913, 



