AND FALCO PEREGRIN ATOR. 427 



coverts are somewliat more strongly marked than in the 

 male bird ; the breast is immaculate, but the flanks and under 

 tail-coverts are slightly barred as in the male, and there are 

 small irregular dark spots on a few of the lower abdominal 

 feathers ; some similar spots are observable on the outer side 

 of the thighs, and on that of the right thigh there is a single 

 remarkable feather, very different from those of the surround- 

 ing plumage ; it has a dark slaty shaft mark, and five narrow 

 transverse bars of a pale slate color, the interspaces being 

 rufous, tinted with grey, and the tip pure rufous ; two or three 

 adjacent feathers are somewhat similarly marked, but not to 

 the same extent. 



The following are the measurements which I have taken 

 from this female : — 



Wing ... .. 12'8 



Tarsus ... .-.. 19 



Mid-toe, S. W. ... 2-1 



I have seen no fully adult South Indian example of Falco 

 peregrinator, but a presumed female, obtained by Mr. Hodgson 

 in Nepal, and preserved in the British Museum, bears a close 

 resemblance to Captain Legge's Ceylon female, and I think 

 must be referred to the same race of F. peregrinator. This 

 specimen has the abdominal region of a rich rufous, even 

 deeper than is the case in the Ceylon female ; the bars on the 

 flanks and thighs are small and not numerous, and are scarcely 

 at all tinged with grey. This specimen appears, notwithstanding 

 its immaculate breast, to be barely adult, as it was killed 

 whilst moulting, and several of the old feathers remaining in 

 the mantle are brown, and as it seems to me, differ more from 

 the new feathers than is to be accounted for merely by use 

 and fading ; the bases of the feathers on the nape are also 

 rufous; the newly-acquired feathers are blackish brown on 

 the wing- coverts, scapulars and interscapulars ; on the lower 

 back and upper tail-coverts they are grey, barred transversely 

 towards the base with dark slate color. 



This specimen measures : — 



Wing ... ... 12-45 



Tarsus ... ... 1'9 



Mid-toe, S. W. ... 2-3 



Mr. Hume has kindly lent me a female killed by Mr. W. E. 

 Brooks near Allahabad in March 1865, which also resembles 

 the Ceylon female, but with the following differences : — The 

 crown of the head and nape are slightly tinged with brown 

 as in the type of F. atriceps, and a few of the feathers of the 

 nape retain the rufous base ; the dark transverse bars on the 



