50 A NOTE ON THE NIDIFICATION OF HAKPACTES ORESKIOS. 



about the Koko-nor, which localities abound with alpine hares ; 

 and these, at least in winter, form its principal food. 



" This Falcon also attacks birds, such as Syrrhaptes paradoxus, 

 usually when the latter are drinking. Once it threw itself upon 

 a hare which we had started, and followed it, constantly 

 swooping down upon the animal and hitting it with the beak ; 

 after every blow the hare stopped and went on running- after 

 a time, until we lost sight of it, and consequently could not 

 tell how the attack terminated. 



" The Mongols and Tanguts do not train these Falcons for 

 sport; at least we never saw it during our travels." 



The above notice of Falco Hendersoni is very interesting. 

 It contains one error, which however is not important. In their 

 attack, when on the wing, Falcons use the hind claw, not the 

 bill. I have seen a Peregrine cut off the head of a pigeon 

 with a single blow of the hind claw. 



Mr. Sharpe is, I think, wrong in his conclusion that it takes a 

 series of moults to mature a Falcon. Mr Hancock has always 

 contended that these birds mature at once, when they cast 

 their first or nestling plumage ;* by this, of course, I do not 

 mean the down, which I do not count as a plumage. 



His experiments, and very fine collections of large Falcons, 

 bear out his conclusion, that variation in adult Falcons is due 

 to complexion, and not to age. With Eagles, it is however quite 

 different ; they take some years to fully mature. 



% ffote on tlje Unification: of |i)arp;utcs ©vcsluos. 



By C. T. Bingham. 



On the 21st February 1877, as I was on the march from the 

 village of Toungdee to the village of Tagoondine on the south- 

 ern bank of the Winges River in the Tennasserim Provinces, 

 I was so fortunate as to find a nest of this handsome Trogon.f 



My order of march was, generally, first my guide, next my- 

 self, then my interpreter, lastly my peons in single file, as 

 the paths through the dense forests here are narrow. On this 

 occasion, however, I had loitered behind to shoot a jungle fowl 

 that had been crowing lustily some distance off the road : and 

 my men were waiting for me. As I came up, I noticed some- 

 thing like the tail of a bird sticking apparently out of a 



* I am not sure that I rightly understand this, but my belief founded on a very 

 large series of observations is that TP.jngger, for instance, is fully 3 years old, before it 

 assumes what I consider the perfect adult plumage. — Ed., S, F. 



f Davison has also taken 3 nests thi? year of this species. 



