FALCONING. 13 



yellow to a bright almost orange-yellow. The claws are blackish- 

 horny ; the cere is dingy greenish-grey or plumbeous in the 

 young, bright yellow in the adult ; the orbit greenish-yellow in the 

 former, blight yellow in the latter ; the bill varies at base from 

 greenish-horny to greyish-blue and even blue, and at tip from 

 dark horny-blue to bluish-black ; the irides are brown. 



Adult Male. Above dusky-ashy or slate color ; crown of head 

 dull rufous with central ashy-black striations ; lores, forehead, 

 chin, throat and eyebrow white ; moustachial stripe black ; 

 wing-coverts concolorous with the back, the carpal margin 

 white ; the breast white with a few brown spots ; lower abdo- 

 men, flanks and thighs ashy brown ; tail clear ashy-grey with 

 pale rufous bars on the inner webs and a white tip. 



Young of a chocolate-brown above and below ; wing-coverts 

 with rufous margins ; head yellowish-fawn ; or pale rufous ; 

 forehead and eyebrow whitish ; chin and throat white ; under 

 tail-coverts dirty-white with faint brown markings. 



The Laggar is the commonest of the larger Falcons, and occurs 

 throughout the region. It is a permanent resident, and breeds 

 during the first three months of the year, the majority of them 

 laying in Fabruary. It is by no means particular in the choice 

 of a site for its nest ; a hole in the face of an old building, a 

 ledge on a rocky or clayey cliff, a fork in a tree, or even a 

 deserted crow or other nest, are all made use of. The eggs, 

 three or four in number, are oval in shape, of a fine but chalky 

 texture, reddish or yellowish- white in color, so closely freckled 

 and stippled with reddish-brown, as to leave little or none of the 

 ground color discernible. At such times the egg, unless looked 

 at closely, appears to be a uniform brick-red. Sometimes the 

 color is whiter and the egg blotched, clouded or capped with 

 reddish-brown, not however very distinct. They are at times 

 very beautiful. 



They average 2 inches in length by T55 in breadth. 



Falco babylonicus, Gurney. 



12. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 32 ; Hume's Scrap Book, 



p. 79 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 67. 

 THE RED-CAP FALCON. 



Length, 16; expanse, 38; weight, 12ozs ; wing, 11 '87 ; tail, 

 (of 12 feathers), 6 ; tarsus, (feathered for 0'5 in front) 1*87; 

 bill from gape, -1'19. 



Legs and feet bright yellow, whitish at the joints of the 

 reticulated scales of the tarsus ; soles with large pads, very 

 conspicuous under second joint of middle and exterior toe ; claws 

 horn black; middle-toe very slender and elongated; irides 

 dark brown ; edges of the lids greenish-yellow, with tiny dark 

 lashes ; membrane of the orbits pale greenish. 



Forehead baffy- white, feathers dark shafted ; line over the 



