114} Journal of the Asiatic Societfj of Bengal. -[February, 19J7r 



Lahore to Yar^and^ there is a coloured figure of " Falco Hender- 

 soni," which, for some reason, Mr. Huriie assumed to be " the- 

 Shanghar of Eastern falconers." If one may judge from the 

 coloured figure, the falcon represented is merely an old bird of the 

 kestril-like variety of Saker, a variety well known to Pan jab 

 falconers.^ In the immature plumage the red markings would 

 be white, and the bird merely a striking example of that variety 

 or race distinguished by falconers of the Kapurtliala State as c/;.zfa^ 

 chargk and supposed by them to be soft and lacking in courage. 



The late Sirdar Sher *Ali, once Wall of Kandahar, told the 

 writer that he had kept sJitmqSrs in Afghanistan and that he had 

 one that was " puie white like snow " ; and Sirdar F. Muhammad 

 Khan of Kabul, who has accompanied H.M. the Amir of Afghanis- 

 tan on a visit to India, states tliat ^^ shunqars are a very large 

 species of charkh and that some of them are white.'* 



Dr. Scully has, I think, been misled as regards the names 

 sJiunqSr and italgu. However, the term shunqdr has been fre- 

 quently misapplied by some Eastern writers that write from- 

 hearsay and are assisted by a fine imagination. 



For further iiiformation on the subject the reader is referred 

 to Harting's ''' BihUotheca Accipitrarza^^* pages 187 and 191. 



1 The falcon described by Hume was '* feathered in front for three-fifthn 

 of its length." There appears to be an undescribed variety of F. Cherrag, 

 which has feafcbers on the tarsus and feet. Amongst Pindi Gheb falconers 

 this variety is known by the nnme of Sang-Sang ; while by Derajat falconers 

 it is distinguished by the epifchet ^gd-moz <= booted], an epithet applied to- 

 pigeons with feathered legs. I have myself never met with this rare variety- 



