140 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OP INDIA. 



which auy conclusion I may have arrived at, were formed ; and 

 secondly, because in a rough way it does show approximately 

 the comparative numerical strength in the islands of the several 

 species. 



As to the former, where a man has 20 or 30 carefully sexed 

 specimens of a given species to study, any one would more 

 willingly accept his verdict as to its distinctness or otherwise 

 than if he had had only a couple to deal with. 



As to the latter, it may be safely assumed that where I have 

 large numbers of specimens the bird is common, at any rate in 

 some part of the islands, and that where I have very few or 

 none it is exceedingly rare in all accessible portions of them, 

 although it may hereafter prove to be common in the unexplored 

 Little Andaman, or hilly interior of the Great Nicobar. 



In regard to the habits and distribution of each species I 

 have, as a rule, preferred giving Mr. Davison's remarks to putting 

 forward any of my own ; lstly, because he was nearly six 

 months amongst the islands to my one ; 2ndly, because talking 

 over with him nightly, what we had seen and observed, I could 

 not possibly now say how much of my knowledge was derived 

 from him, and how much was the result of original observation ; 

 and 3rdly, because I have already in my diary reproduced most 

 of the notes that I recorded on the spot. In some few cases I 

 have excerpted passages from the diary and introduced them, 

 under the species to which they refer, in the following list, and 

 in some few cases where my experience did not accord with Mr. 

 Davison's I have mentioned the fact, but in most cases I have 

 contented myself with his notes as embodying all that I knew, 

 and not unfrequently a good deal that I had had no opportunity 

 of knowing. It was his first collecting trip, and he had many 

 difficulties to overcome. 



8.— Falco peregrinus, Gm. (0.) 



We saw, pn Preparis Island, a pair of this species ; one 

 made a swoop at a party of small stints close to where I was 

 standing, but I had not my gun as I was busy with a lively 

 turtle's hind leg in one hand and a great lump of coral in the 

 other, eagerly watching one of my companions floundering 

 after another turtle through a deep pool in the reef. Colonel 

 Tytler mentions having seen a pair on Ross Island, but neither 

 Davison nor any of our party ever met with the bird either on 

 the Andamans or the Nicobars, and if it does occur there, it must, 

 I feel satisfied, be merely as a chance straggler. 



