IN JERDON OR STRAY FEATHERS. 327 



Irides deep brown ; cere, gape, orbital space, legs and feet, 

 bright yellow ; bill pale leaden blue, blackish at tips, greenish 

 yellowish at base. 



This is the largest bird that I have measured ; males are con- 

 siderably smaller. 



This species or race is constantly smaller sex for sex than 

 perigrinator; it invariably has the whole head, nape, cheek 

 stripes, cheeks and sides of the head black, forming one unbro- 

 ken black cap, which is rarely, if ever, the case in perigrinator, 

 and it has the whole upper parts a much lighter paler slaty 

 blue, (recalling that of Falco chiquera) than is ever seen in 

 perigrinator. 



The upper parts are closely and conspicuously barred as in 

 the peregrine, with dusky slaty, differing in this respect from 

 adult perigrinator, which has these bars feebly marked, almost 

 wanting in some specimens. Beneath it is never so rufous, 

 as perigrinator almost always is, and it has the thigh-coverts 

 and under wing-coverts closely though narrowly barred, while in 

 the old perigrinator these are nearly uniform. The bars on the 

 inner webs of the primaries are narrow and close as in perigri- 

 nator, and in this respect it differs conspicuously from peregrinus. 



Jerdon, Verreaux, Gurney, all considered this a good species. 

 It is at any rate a very distinct race, confined apparently to 

 the central section of the Himalayas. I have obtained now 

 several in the neighbourhood of Simla, and I doubt whether 

 the female bird, whose description I quoted from Captain Cock at 

 p. 61 of " Rough Notes," really belonged to this species. I have 

 not the bird to refer to, and at that time I may have been 

 misled as I had then only seen one or two of this pi'esent 

 species or race. — Hume, ,l Rough Notes." 



lOS^.—Hierofalco hendersoni, Hume. 



The best description that can be given of the general appear- 

 ance of the upper surface is, that it resembles that of a female 

 Kestrel. Below the adult bird is almost spotless, except on the 

 flanks ; the cheek stripe is very Ion? and narrow ; the bill 

 short, with a slight festoon and a rather blunt tooth ; the 

 tarsus and toes short, the former feathered in front for three- 

 fifths of its length, the claws comparatively short and singu- 

 larly blunt for a Falcon. 



Hale. — Length, 20 inches ; wing, 14 ; tail from vent, 75 ; 

 tarsus, 2*15, leathered for 1*3 inch ; bill at front, straight from 

 edge of cere to point, 0*81 ; from gape, T36. 



