90 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF GILGIT. 
at about 6,000 feet.” A male Peregrine, shot on the 25th 
April, agrees with Sharpe’s description of the adult male (Cat. 
I., p. 877), except that the feathers of the mid abdomen are not 
cross-barred, but have merely small dart-shaped marks; the 
flanks are pale grey, cross-barred with black; and the forehead 
is not whitish, but slate-grey, with black shafts, like the rest: 
of the head. Length, 16 inches ; wing, 12:25; tail, 6°5; tarsus, 
1:8; mid toe s.u., 2°15 ; bill from gape, 1:15; weight, 1 lb. 4 oz. 
Falco sacer, Gm. (10.) 
This species must be added to the list of birds of Gilgit. 
A specimen was captured in Gilgit in October 1879, when it 
was doubtless migrating southwards. The bird was imma- 
ture ; but, after careful examination, its large size and large 
oval spots on the centre tail-feathers left no doubt that it was 
a true Saker. 
7.—Falco subbuteo, Lin. (13.) 
The Hobby is very common in Gilgit at 5,000 feet, on 
arrival, from the end of April to the second week in May, and 
again on its way southwards from the last week in September 
to the middle of October. 
Out of eleven specimens preserved, only three are fully 
adult. Two males, shot in autumn, are changing from a dark 
brown upper plumage to the slaty colour of the adult; they 
have rich ferruginous thighs and under tail-coverts; and 
the uropygials are regularly barred across both webs. Six 
immature birds all want the rich rufous thighs and under 
tail-coverts of the adult, are more broadly streaked on the 
lower surface, have the under wing-coverts and axillaries 
more rufous, and all have pale margins to the feathers of the 
upper surface ; only one of these specimens has faint bars on 
the uropygials. Of the eleven specimens, therefore, only 
three have the uropygials barred; and these exceptions are 
males. 
8.—Falco esalon, Tunst. (15.) 
The Merlin, according to my observation, is only found in 
Gilgit in winter, and is not common. Considerable difference 
of opinion has prevailed about the plumage of the fully adult 
female in this species, Mr. Sharpe having stated, in the first 
volume of the British Museum Catalogue, that the adult 
female is blue-grey above, like the male, while Mr. Dresser 
has taken some pains to prove, in his “ Birds of Europe,”’ that 
