156 Contributions to the Ornitliology of India, Sfc. 



seems to me have so white a head, or so g-enerally white an 

 under- surface. The young-est bird above described corresponds 

 well, so far as the mantle goes, with this figure, but the prevail- 

 ing color of the head is brown, and thovigh the chin and throat 

 is fulvous white the rest of the lower parts are of as deep a brown 

 as the upper surface, only mottled pretty profusely with white. 

 I really cannot make the figure out. The tail barred, the head 

 that of an old adult, the mantle that of a quite young* bird, the 

 lower surface that of a middle aged bird, and the legs and feet 

 brig-ht yellow, a color never seen to the best of my belief at any 

 age in our Indian saker. 



The question remains is our Indian Bird, Falco chenig et mil- 

 vipes, Hodgson, really identical with the bird known in Europe as 

 Falco saker, or is it a very closely allied species, differing chiefly 

 in the different stages of plumage which it passes through before 

 attaining maturity ? Schlegers figure already referred to might 

 do for a middle aged bird of ours, though I have never seen any 

 specimen so brown above, and with so much white below, but 

 Gould^s figure (which looks to me more like an immature Lanner) 

 finds no counterpart in the ample series that I possess of our 

 Indian species. The question still requires investigation. 



It will be seen that I no longer consider the Sakers with more 

 or less barred upper plumage as distinct. In this Mr. Gurney 

 agrees with me ; he remarks in epist " My own impression is 

 that the sakers which exhibit the transverse markings are not 

 specifically distinct from those which do not exhibit them. It is 

 a curious circumstance that when a saker has nearly reached the 

 period for moulting, the circular spots on the tail will always be 

 found worn much thinner than the surrounding portions of the 

 feather, and in fact evidently do not wear so well." 



As regards this latter point my specimens entirely confirm Mr. 

 Gurney's view ; in one, the round white spots are worn completely 

 into holes, (which of course extend to the margins as the ends must 

 drop when the intermediate portion goes,) in several, they are 

 worn quite transparent, by the disappearance of the barbs of the 

 feathers, within, and only within, the limits of the white spots. 



There is another fact to be noted about these Charghs ; some 

 of them have the i rides yellow, some brownish yellow, some 

 brown. I have verified this myself and I have two specimens 

 procured by Capt, C. H. S. Marshall in which he noted at the 

 time that the irides were yellow. 



XI.— ^Falco jugger, Gr. 



Not uncommon in Sindh, but not nearly so plentiful as in the 

 better wooded and cultivated portions of India. 



