FALGO PEREGKINATOE. 



(THE INDIAN PEREGRINE.) 



Falco peregrinator, Sund. Phys. Tidssk. Lund, 1837, p. 177, pi. 4; Gray, Gen. Birds, i. p. 19 

 (1844); Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 14 (1849); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 1853, xii. p. 102 ; Gould, B. of Asia, pt. 3 (1851) ; Blyth, J. A. S. B. xix. p. 321 (1851) ; 

 Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. p. 18. no. 20 (1854) ; Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 25 

 (1862); Hume, Rough Notes, i. p. 55 (1869); Jerd. Ibis, 1870, p. 237; Holdsworth, 

 P. Z. S. 1872, p. 410 ; Sharpe, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, xi. p. 223 (1873); id. 

 Cat. B. i. p. 382 (1874) ; Legge, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 195 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 23 

 (1874): Walden, on Col. Tickeil's MS. 111. Ind. Orn., Ibis (1876), p. 342. 



Falco shaheen, Jerd. Madr. Journ. x. p. 81 (1839); id. 111. Ind. Orn. pis. 12 & 28 (1847). 



Falco sultaneus, Hodgs. in Gray's Zool. Misc. p. 81 (1844). 



Falco ruber, Schl. Mus. P.-B. Falc. p. 5 (1862). 



The Shahin Falcon, Jerdon, B. of India ; Boyal Falcon of some. 



Shahin, "Royal bird " (female), Kohee Koela (male), Hind. ; Jawolum, Tel. ; Wallur, Tarn. 



Ukussa, Sinhalese. 



. Idult male (from Ceylonese and Indian examples). Length to front of cere 13-0 to 14-2 inches ; culmenfrom cere - 9 

 to 1-0 ; wing 11-4 to 11-6, expanse about 34-0 ; tail fi-0 to 6-4; tarsus 2-0 : middle toe 2-1, claw (straight) 0-7; 

 hind toe 0-85, claw (straight) 0-9 ; height of bill at cere 0-45. 



Female. Length to front of cere 15-0 inches ; culmen from cere 1*1 ; wing 12 - to 13-3, expanse of the latter 3S - 2. 



A male from Ceylon measured 11*6, and a female L2*8 in the wing. 



Iris dark umber-brown ; cere, eyelid, and gape ochre-yellow ; bill dark plumbeous, changing to greenish near the cere ; 

 legs and feet chrome-yellow, claws black. 



1 lead, hind neck, and upper back ashy blackish, deepest on the sides of the neck and paling gradually into bluish ashy on 

 the rump and upper tail-coverts, the latter part being the lightest; all the feathers with dark shafts, the scapulars 

 and wing-coverts edged with pale ashy and the lower back and tail-coverts crossed on the centre of the feathers 

 with dark wavy bars, often concealed by the tips of the overlying feathers ; lesser coverts darker than the median ; 

 quills blackish brown, the shorter primaries slightly pervaded with grey, and the whole narrowly barred on the 

 inner webs with fulvous or light rufous-grey, according to the age of the bird ; the secondaries paler than the 

 primaries, and tipped with dull whitish ; tail ashy blackish, tipped with rufescent and barred chiefly at the base 

 with softened slaty markings ; edge of the forehead buff with dark shafts. 



Cheeks and moustachial stripe black, blending into the paler hue of the head ; chin and throat rufescent white, passing 

 on the chest into pale rufous, and from that into the rich rufous of the breast, flanks, and lower parts ; shafts of 

 the chest-feathers darker rufous than the web ; flanks and under tail-coverts crossed on the centre of the feather 

 with narrow lines of blackish ; under wing-coverts dark rufescent, with darker shafts and cinereous black barrings : 

 greater row brownish, barred with rufescent. 



Olits. The rufous of the under surface is variable in depth, notwithstanding that the bird may be fully adult. Ceylonese 

 examples 'in my collection correspond well with Indian, old birds, devoid of any barring on the breast, being 

 scarcely less dark on the head and hind neck than the blackish-headed Nepaul birds (Falco atriceps, Hume). 



.Some examples in the British Museum from Northern India present puzzling characteristics. There is one from Simla, 

 presented by Capt. Pinwill, which has the appearance of a rather small Common Peregrine with a very rufous 

 under surface. The feathers of the back and rump and the scapulars are as much barred as in F. peregrinus ; the 

 chest is marked with fine mesial points like that species : the breast and lower parts are rufous-grey, and barred 

 with narrow cross rays of blackish brown as in an old Peregrine, with the exception that the markings are closer 

 together ; the flanks and under tail-coverts are likewise tinged with bluish grey. 



