32 BIRDS CF INDIA. 



12. Falco babylonicus, Gueney. 



ScLATER and Irby, Ibis, vol. 3, p. 218, — F. peregrinator, 

 apud HoRSF., Cat. 20 in part. 



Red-headed Lanner. 



Descr. — Nearly similar to F. harbarus, but generally lighter, 

 and rather more rufous on the front of the head : the size, however, 

 in nearly one-tliird greater, being the same as that of F. lanarius 

 of Schlegel. From the latter bird it may be distinguished, 

 1. — By the absence of the whitish frontal band, the rufous of the 

 vertex extending forwards on to the cere, and being bordered 

 behind by abroad band of dark slaty brown, which divides it 

 from the rufous of the nape. 2. — By the feathers on the back 

 of the neck below the nape being bordered with rufous of the 

 same tinge as on tlie nape. This edging is sometimes present in 

 F. barbarus, but never to the same extent in F. lanariuf^. 3. — By 

 the comparative absence of spots on the upper portion of the 

 lower surface, in Avhich character it nearly agrees Avith the Abyssinian 

 form of F. lanarius, whicii I take to be strictly Liclitenstein's 

 F. taw/ptevus. The middle claw of F. bahylouicus is longer than 

 that of F. lanarius, in whicli respect it also approaches to the 

 structure of F. barbarus. Judging from the partial remains of 

 the immature plirnagc in one specimen, it woidd appear that in 

 this stage the bird most..nearly resembles F. peregriuus, in which 

 particidar it also agrees witli F. barbarus. 



Length, 17 to 18 inches; wing, 12^ to 13; tail, 6^ to 7; tars., 

 nearly 2 ; mid toe 2.' 



A specimen of this newly-described Falcon was obtained by 

 Captain Irby in 1858 in Oude. It appears that one of the spe- 

 cimens named F. jyeregrinator, in the Mus. E. I. C. H., brought 

 from Babylon by Commodore Jones, belongs to this species, and 

 others exist in the Norwich Museum, one said to be from Africa. 

 Mr. Sclater remarks that 'it does not belong to the group of true 

 Peregrines, but rather to that containing F. latiarius, Schlegel, 

 F. tanyptenis, Licht., F. biarndcus, Tem., and F. barbarus, Salvin.,' 

 i. e., our Lanners. 



