FALCONIN.E. 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 Swat rivers. 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. Ill, 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 FALCON. 

 Shahin, Hin. 



<?. Length, 14'87 ; wing, 11*49 ; tail, 6 ; tarsus, 1'85 ; bill from 

 gape, 1-1. 



? . 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, light 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 rump 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 



