EALCO PEEEGEINATOE. 107 



Young. Wing of a male 10-6 inches. Cere yellowish, tinged with green, in some entirety bluish ; legs and feet 

 greenish yellow. 



Above brownish black, the feathers of the back and wing-coverts with fine pale margins, the scapulars tipped with 

 rufous and some of the concealed portions of the feathers barred with the same ; rump edged with rufous, upper 

 tail-coverts tipped and barred with a paler hue ; quills deep brown, the bars of the inner webs more rufous than 

 in the adult ; tail barred obscurely with rufous, which on the central feathers is of a dusky hue. 



Cheeks and moustachial stripe blackish brown ; throat and chest white, passing into rufescent buff on the breast and 

 flanks ; the chest and the white space above the moustache streaked with shaft-lines of brown, expanding at the 

 tip ; breast streaked broadly with brown, the lower flank-feathers deeply tipped and marked with bar-like spots of 

 the same ; the abdomen, under tail-coverts, and thighs are paler than the breast, the former streaked similarly 

 to the chest and the thighs more boldly marked, some of the longer feathers having bar-like spots ; under tail- 

 coverts barred with brown ; under wing-coverts whitish, with irregular cross-markings of brown. 



At the first moult the following change takes place :— the rump and the base of the tail assume a cinereous hue, the 

 edgings of the scapulars are less conspicuous, the bars of the primary inner webs become paler and the shaft- 

 stripes on the chest narrower, the breast and flanks darker rufous, this hue extending to the belly and thighs, and 

 the stripes on the flauks turn into bars. 



The back and rump from this stage onwards begin to turn grey, the shafts of these parts and of the scapulars standing 

 out darkly ; the stripes on the centre of the breast disappear altogether in some examples, leaving the flanks 

 barred to a greater or less extent. 



Distribution. — -This bold and handsome Falcon was recorded by Layard (loc. cit.) as having been shot by 

 his collector and servant near the beautiful upland plain of Gillymally. The account of the specimen in 

 question referred chiefly to its long wings causing the native " Muttoo" to think that it was a "large Swift/' 

 deceiving Layard also, who says of the bird, " which I also mistook for a Swift, so much did its wings overlap 

 its tail." I have carefully examined the whole collection at Poole, and there is not in it any example of 

 F. peregrinator ; but there is one of a female Falco severus, a bird not recorded by Layard in his list. I am 

 therefore of opinion that he did not correctly identify the bird shot on the occasion in question, but that 

 it was in reality a specimen of the Indian Hobby, to which his remarks as to length of wing &c. would relate 

 with correctness. I have written to him on the subject; and in his last letter to me from New Caledonia 

 he says that he has no doubt the bird was the latter species. Should this surmise be correct it is difficult to 

 say when the bird was first discovered in Ceylon ; but I imagine that my reference in ' Stray Feathers,' 1875, 

 to the Pigeon-Island specimens is the first actual record of the bird's occurrence in the island. It is resident 

 in Ceylon, but by no means common, and frequents such very retired spots or inaccessible cliffs that it is 

 rarely met with by the ordinary sportsman. A pair usually affected the cliffs at Fort Frederick during the 

 cool season, dividing their time between foraging on the mainland and making inroads upon the Rock-Pigeons 

 which swarmed at the island beyond IMilavele. At this spot a pair out of three or four birds which had taken 

 up their abode on the northern face were killed by myself and a brother officer in October 1874. This island 

 is an out-of-the-way locality, which, stocked as it is with fine pigeons, forms a welcome refuge for the Shahin. 

 As it has so seldom been shot in Ceylon, I quote here the following passage from my notes in ' Stray Feathers ' : — 

 " The islet is situated 14 miles north of Trincomalie at about 1^ mile from the mainland. Near this place, 

 about i_ a mile nearer the shore, is another rocky islet frequented by flocks of Columba intermedia, which furnish 

 many a dainty meal for the Royal Falcon. Pigeon Island itself is rarely visited except by fishermen, who can 

 only land at the south side, where there is a little beach backed by a tangled thicket, which rises gradually to 

 the pinnacle in the centre, whence the northern side descends in the form of a perpendicular face right into 

 the sea. This cliff, under which it is very difficult to pass on foot, forms a splendid shelter for the Shahin ; for 

 he can perch and roost on the shelves which jut out into the numerous crevices in the face of the rock without 

 being disturbed by any one in the island who does not choose to scramble along the almost inaccessible rocks at 

 its foot. I visited the spot on the 6th October 1874, in search of pigeons, and finding none, was clambering 

 over the rocks on an adjoining islet, separated at high water from the main portion, when I espied a large 

 Falcon coming along over the water and making for the cliff. I quickly turned back, reached the cliff, and 

 got out on to an enormous boulder which enfiladed the precipice, affording a good view of the whole of it, but 

 not a vestige of the Falcon was to be seen. I then determined to get right underneath, and jumped across a 



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