524 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



cultivated districts, such as the better parts of the Deccan, Gujarat and 

 Khandesh. If a nest were marked by the unmistakeable plumage 

 of the old birds, the young might be shot before the family broke up 

 at the conclusion of their education, which probably happens early in 

 the rains (as they are bred in the late cold weather), perhaps, however, 

 as late as December. The bird is exclusively Indian, and lives chiefly 

 on small winged quarry. Its specific name, as our author remarks, 

 belongs of right to Astur hadius. The native and European god- 

 fathers must have been stupid and ignorant above even the average 

 of people who tack fragments of barbarous tongues on to the classic 

 languages. That's saying a good deal, for such specific names are 

 wrong all roundj probably seven times in ten. No two small birds 

 of prey are more easily distinguishable by colour and habit and no 

 two better known to any decent native falconer or shikari than the 

 jShikra and the Turumti. 



The Kestrels {Tinnunculus) are a small genus of small falcons, two 

 in number, both palsearctic birds. But the English kestrel, T. alau- 

 dariusj does breed with us on very high lands, such as the Ghats ; and 

 many specimens, from Central Asia and the Himalayas, visit our fields 

 and plains in winter. It is best recognized, at a distance, by its habit 

 of hovering over one spot, with quivering wings, and dropping verti- 

 cally on prey, like our Pied King-fisher. The prey is of small 

 reptiles and mammals and large insects ; and, though its specific 

 name implies that it is ^' up to larks," any full-fledged lark is as safe 

 from it as from the nearest gander. 2', cenchris, the Lesser Kestrel, 

 though a more Eastern bird, probably does not breed south of the 

 Himalayas at all. It is a cold weather visitor to our opener country, 

 with habits " very similar to those of the common kestrel ; but this 

 species is more gregarious and more insectivorous." Both are known 

 to the Marathas as " Bhairu Sassa. " 



None of the falcons touch carrion, unless in dire extremity. 

 The genus Microhierax^ *' the pigmy falcons, or falconets, as they 

 have been termed, are not closely allied to falcons, nor to any other 

 group," and are not found in our province, being chiefly Malayan. 

 With them ends the volume under review. It is ta be hoped that, 

 before all this has got into type, the volume we want most— that on 

 the game, table, and water birds— will be in the market. 



