812 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV. 



V Ist primary sub equal to 3rd or shorter ; upper 

 parts not ashy grey. 

 c" Adults not banded above. 



c^ A distinct narrow cheek-stripe ; mid- 

 dle tail-feathers entirely brown in 



adults F. jugger. 



(The Laggar Falcon.) 

 d^ No cheek-stripe ; middle tail-feathers 

 usually brown, with white spots on 



both webs ,.,F. cherrug. 



(The Saker Falcon.) 

 d" Adults banded with rufous on back, wings, 



and tail F. milvipes. 



(The Shanghar Falcon.) 

 h. Small Falcons with shorter toes ; mid-toe without 

 claw not over 1-5". 



c' Breast white or buff with brown streaks F. suhbuteo. 



(The Hobby.) 



d' Breast deep rufous, unspotted in adults F. severus. 



(The Indian Hobby). 

 In the Falcons the plumage undergoes a considerable change from the young 

 to the adult stage, so recognition from descriptions is not easy, especially if 

 the bird be not in its complete new plumage, and has few feathers remaining 

 from the previous year. These feathers, however, will always have a faded 

 appearance, and a young bird can nearly always be distinguished by having 

 its feet of a bluish tinge, instead of the bright yellow of an adult bird. 

 F. peregrinator (The Shaheen) however is an exception. 



It seems to be undecided as to whether the Hobbies breed in India as the 

 nest has apparently never been taken. I am, however, quite sure that 

 one of the two species does breed in India, as I took a nest with 4 young 

 birds in Tehri Gurhwal, near the source of the Ganges River, in July 1896, 

 and then again 2 young birds were brought to me in Kashmir in September 

 1899, I unfortunately failed to make certain at the time, as to whether they 

 were F. suhbuteo or F. severus, but I can distinctly remember the parent bird, 

 in the first case, to have had a very white and spotted breast, so am inclined 

 to think those I took in Gurhwal were the young of F. sM6&M<eo, and probably 

 the same in Kashmir. Last year, however, I shot a Hobby in Kashmir and 

 not very far from the place where the young were brought to me, which 

 proved to be F. severus. Of course it might have had no connection with 

 the young ones. 



Besides the true Falcons, the 2 species of the genus ^salon, JE. regulus, 

 the Merlin and ^. chicquera, the Red-headed Merlin, are also much used in 

 falconry and afford uncommonly good sport when trained to larks, hoopooes, 

 rollers, &c. They are both small birds but exceptionally fast on the wing. 



