430 NOTES ON FALCO ATRICEPS 



limited to North-Western and Northern India, and towards its 

 eastern limit to inosculate with the race which has the under 

 parts more rufous and more nearly immaculate, and of which 

 the range extends from Nepal to Ceylon. I do not recollect 

 having ever seen an adult specimen from Burmah, hut by the 

 kindness of the late Lord Tweeddale I had an opportunity, two 

 years since, of examining an immature bird in change, 

 obtained atTounghoo, and recorded by him in a note to Blyth's 

 Catalogue published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal for 1872, part 2, p. 59. 



This specimen bore a strong resemblance (as indeed is fre- 

 quently the case with immature examples of F. peregrinator), 

 to the immature dress of F. melanogenys, but I did not take 

 down any detailed memoranda as to its markings or coloration. 

 The materials at my disposal do not enable me to hazard an 

 opinion as to whether any perceptible difference exists between 

 F. atriceps and the other races of F. peregrinator in their im- 

 mature dress, but I have noted the following particulars of 

 specimens in that plumage which I have recently examined. 



Mr. Hume has been good enough to lend me a young bird 

 marked " Madras, March 1877,^' which, from its small size, is 

 evidently a male — measuring as under : — 



Wing ... ... 11-2 



Tarsus ... ... 19 



Mid-toe, S. W. ... 1-9 



I suppose this to have been a nestling, perhaps a late 

 hatched one, of 1876, and as the state of the skin shows 

 some indication of its having been kept in confinement, I 

 attribute to that cause the circumstance of its nestling plu- 

 mage being apparently less faded or worn than is tlie case in 

 any other specimen which I have examined. In this bird the 

 cheeks, anterior portion of the ear-coverts, and moustache, are 

 black, as also is the crown of the head, with the exception of 

 slight rufous edgings to the central feathers ; the feathers on 

 the nape are similar, but broadly and conspicuously bordered 

 with rufous ; the upper interscapular feathers are blaekish 

 brown, with scarcely any perceptible rufous edging ; the remain- 

 der of the mantle is similar, but with less, of a blackish tint, 

 and with more decided rufous edgings which are broadest on 

 the lower back and upper tail-coverts ; the quill feathers of the 

 wing are blackish brown, tipped with rufous, and transversely 

 barred with the same on the inner web ; the tail is dark brown, 

 with the rectrices showing on their outer webs from six to 

 eight rufescent spots, which on the inner webs assume the 

 form of transverse bars, but these bars are much less distinct, 



