MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 629 



A fortnight afterwards Jones visited the nest again to see how the 

 young were progressing, but much to his surprise, he found that one of 

 them had disappeared ; the other was doing splendidly. The old bird 

 was not in the nest at the time, and Jones, taking advantage of its seem- 

 ing absence, brought down the youngster from the tree, with a view to 

 photographing it. He had barely got the little chap into position, when 

 the old bird appeared on the scene, and made a most determined attack 

 on him, knocking off his hat, and drawing blood from his scalp and face. 



From the foregoing it seems pretty clear that the normal number of 

 eggs of this species is 2, and that it lays about the middle or third week 

 in April. The nesting site is either the hollow of an old tree, or a cavern 

 or fissure of a precipice. 



Now that we have fairly complete data, there should be no further 

 difficulty in finding more nests of this Owl at the proper season. 



P. T. L. DODSWORTH, r.z.s., m.b.o.u. 

 Simla, ISth June 1913. 



No. XVIII.— SOME FURTHER NOTES ON THE NESTING AND 



PLUMAGE OF THE SHAHIN FALCON {FALCO PEREGRIN A- 



TOR) VEL THE BLACK-CAP FALCON {FALCO ATRICEPS). 



Since recording the note about this species in the Journal dated the 

 21st April 1913 ( pp. 197-198), I have taken another nest on the 30th 

 March 1913, containing 2 eggs, in practically the same spot as the one 

 taken last year. 



It will be remembered that on the previous occasion I mentioned having 

 shot both the old birds, and a few months afterwards, on visiting this cliff, 

 which had been haunted by them, I found, much to my surprise, that it 

 was tenanted again by another pair of Shahins. These birds did not lay 

 in the old nest, but in a hole of the cliff', about half a mile distant. 



In the present case there was no nest of any kind, and the eggs were 

 reposing on the bare ground. 



The colouration of the two eggs is entirely different. One — a magnificent 

 specimen — is a rich uniform deep brick-red, the other has a ground colour 

 of brownish-yellow, and is heavily blotched with reddish brown. In shape 

 they are broad ovals, a good deal pointed towards the small end. They 

 measure (1) 1-92" x 1-53", (2) l-88"xl-52". 

 The shells have a fine texture. 

 One egg was fresh, the other semi-incubated. 



I did not shoot the birds in this instance, as I had on several occasions 

 watched them at very close quarters before they had laid, and had noted 

 full details of their plumage. The following are the characteristic points 

 which deserve notice : — 



(i) The cheek-stripe of the male was absolutely fused into the black 



of the head and nape, while in the female it was quite distinct, 

 (u) The male had no fulvous whatever on the neck, a sign of great 



age : tYie feynale had a rufous collar, a sign of immaturity. 

 {in) The male was ferruginous about the crop and sternum : the cor- 

 responding parts in the female were a light salmon, slightly 

 darker on the sternum. 

 The reverse was the case, as regards all three of the above points, in 

 the birds shot last year. 



All these facts tend to confirm my previous impressions : — 



(«) That the clear " homogeneous unbroken black cap " on which 



