15£ Contrihutioiis to the Ornithology of India, 8fe. 



this was on the banks of the canal near Shikarpore, and saw 

 at most three or four more all the time we were in Sindh. True- 

 to the sea-coast-loviug" habits of the species, I found a pair hang-- 

 ing about the Manora headland of the Kurrachee Harbour, and 

 another pair oif the entrance of the Bay of Muscat, but these 

 were far too wary to allow of any successful shot. I obtained 

 a very fine female, however, before entering* Sindh, on the banks 

 of the Clienab near its junction with the Indus. 



Mr. Gray separates our Indian birds under Latham^s name of 

 calidus, but having- now had the opportunity of comparing" 

 no less than seven Em-opean with more than twenty Indian 

 specimens, I must record my humble concurrence in Mr. Gur- 

 ney^s view that they are identical. 



10.— Falco saker, ScUegeh 



Strangle as it may appear I only saw one single specimen of 

 this falcon in Sindh. Further north, in the Punjab, in the 

 Perozepore and Sirsa districts for instance, they are excessively 

 abundant. My single specimen, a nearly adult male, with the 

 wing 14 inches, was shot at Shahgodria, at the foot of the hills 

 dividing Sindh from Kelat in the Mehur Sub-division of Upper 

 Sindh. I was always on the look-out for this bird, and not 

 infrequently shot F.- juggur, by mistake, for it, but this was the 

 only specimen seen either by myself or any of our party. 



An idea, I observe, seems to exist that my beautiful new falcon 

 from Yarkand, F. Hendersoni, is nothing but F. milvijjes, Hodg- 

 son. Amongst Mr. Hodgson^s drawings now in my custody, 

 (the originals as I understand of most of the more elaborately 

 finished copies in the British Museum) is a most beautiful figure 

 of milvipes, which is clearly and unmistakeably our saker. Even 

 were the native name not recorded as " Charghela^^ (and it is 

 to be borne in mind that native falconers and fowlers like 

 Hodgson's are familiar with every stage of the plumage of falcons 

 commonly flown,) I have half a dozen specimens every one of 

 which corresponds accurately with this very laboured and perfect 

 full size drawing; most assuredly F. milvipes, Hodgs, is only 

 one stage of our Indian saker and equally surely this latter is 

 wholly distinct from Hendersoni nobis. 



I wish to say more about F. saker, or at any rate our Indian 

 species that now bears that designation. I do not think that 

 its various changes of plumage have yet been fully noted. 



After carefully studying a very large series of specimens which 

 have been picked out from nearly double the number, a series 

 in which no two birds are precisely alike,, the general conclusions 

 I come to are these : 



