2 ON THE BIRDS OF THE N.W. PROVINCES. [Jan. 15, 



The Secretary read the following letter from Mr. A. Anderson, 

 F.Z.S., containing a correction of his last paper on the Raptorial 

 Birds of the N.W. Provinces : — " I find that Mr. Hume is right in 

 his conjecture ' that the bird figured at pi. xxiii. P. Z. S. for 1876, 

 as Falco babylonicus, is an abnormally coloured F. barbarus. 



" Mr. Gurney, who has kindly (at my request) reexamined the bird, 

 and compared it with specimens at the British Museum, has autho- 

 rized my publishing the following memorandum which he has drawn 

 up on the subject. 



" Memorandum. 



"At the request of Mr. Anderson I inspected the Falcon, figured 

 in the Society's ' Proceedings' for 1876, on pi. xxiii., as a specimen of 

 Falco babylonicus, before that figure was drawn. The specimen 

 struck me as smaller than any F. babylonicus I had previously seen, 

 and as having rufous edgings to a larger proportion of the feathers of 

 the mantle ; but it certainly did not occur to me that it was any thing 

 else than a small male of F. babylonicus, with the male of which 

 species I was not, however, well acquainted, the specimens of that 

 Falcon in the Norwich Museum being apparently, by their size, all 

 females. 



"At p. 140 of 'Stray Feathers' for 1877 this Falcon is referred 

 to ; and the Editor suggests that it is too small for F. babylonicus, 

 and ' might perhaps be F. barbarus.' 



" In consequence of this remark, I recently took the skin, at Mr. 

 Anderson's request, to the British Museum for comparison, and 

 found that it closely agrees with a Falcon from Nubia in that collec- 

 tion, both in size and in coloration ; this Nubian Falcon has been 

 identified by Mr. Sharpe with F. barbarus, and is specimen a. in 

 the enumeration given at p. 387 of vol. i. of his British- Museum 

 Catalogue. 



" I believe that Mr. Sharpe's identification of this specimen is cor- 

 rect, and that both it and Mr. Anderson's Etawah Falcon are abnor- 

 mally coloured specimens of F. barbarus. 



"J. H. Gurney. 



"6th December, 1877. 



" In expressing my regret that the mistake in question should 

 have occurred, I may remark that I believe the present is the first 

 recorded occurrence of an adult F. barbarus within the limits to 

 which I have restricted my researches, whereas the capture of F. 

 babylonicus has been of comparative frequency ; the addition there- 

 fore of the former (F. barbarus) to my plains Catalogue is of 

 greater importance than if it had been the latter (F. babylonicus)." 



The following papers were read : — 



1 Cf. ' Str. Feath.' for 1877, p. 140. 



