Some Notes on the White-legged Falconet.



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many curious and interesting traits, one of the features concerning

them, that from my point of view is a great attraction, is the diffi¬

culty of obtaining them. In most colonies, including Africa, these

birds now-a-days are rigidly protected: for that reason and for the

real rarity of certain species, it seems to me unlikely that they

will ever become really common. At any rate those species which

inhabit wild and almost inaccessible tracts of land (and there are

many such) can hardly come into the greedy hands of the bird-

dealer. For their sakes, let us rejoice that this is so.



SOME NOTES ON

THE WHITE-LEGGED FALCONET.


Microhierax melanoleucus.


By E. C. Stuart Baker, E.Z.S., etc.


As pets the members of the Falconidce are not often kept,

except for the purpose of hawking, yet amongst the birds I have

personally made the acquaintance of in captivity, some of the most

interesting have been Eagles and Hawks.


Perhaps the most uncommon capture—I cannot say he was a

pet—I have had, was a tiny Pigmy Falcon or Falconet ( Microhierax

melanoleucus ) and the way in which it came into my possession was

in itself a very striking instance of the bird’s character. At the

time this happened I was stationed in the North Cachar Hills, a

district of Assam, and one day during the rainy season, whilst out

in camp, my dalavallah, or postal runner, handed me with my letters

a bundle in a cloth which he said was a small bird he had caught on

the road. He also advised me to be careful how I opened the cloth

as it was “ a very furious bird” and had bitten him severely before

he tied it up in his puggree. With great caution, therefore, I opened

the bundle and discovered inside this wonderful little black and white

falcon, and with him the body of a Scimitar Babbler ( Pomatorhinus

phayrei ) in the breast feathers of which his feet were still entangled.

The runner’s story was to the effect that he had come on the falcon

seated on the babbler, which he was busy eating, in the middle of

the forest path, and that the killer being smaller than his victim he



