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obtained. Mr. J. H. Gurney considered this form to be a very old stage of plumage of Falco 

 sacer, and I, when I wrote the article in the ' Birds of Europe ' on that species, held the same 

 opinion and figured it as such. Since then, however, having had an opportunity of examining a 

 larger series, I have modified my views, and think that it should be recognized as a fairly distinct 

 species; and Mr. Blanford, who has gone carefully into the question, is of the same opinion. 

 This gentleman, in the recently published volume on the ' Birds of India ' (Faun. Brit. Ind., 

 Birds, iii. p. 422), gives the distribution as "Tibet and part of Mongolia. A few birds have been 

 obtained in the Punjab at times, and one by Sir O. St. John at Quetta." Its range, however, 

 appears to me to be much more extensive than given by Mr. Blanford, as in the Norwich 

 Museum there is a specimen from Athens, and another, the one figured in the ' Birds of Europe,' 

 from Tarsus ; and one obtained by Dr. G. Radde near Tiflis, in the Caucasus, on the 16th March, 

 1868j appears to be undoubtedly referable to this form, as Dr. Radde remarks (Orn. Cauc. p. 70) 

 that it is certainly an old bird and has the tail distinctly barred and not spotted. 



Mr. Zarudny and Messrs. Radde and Walter record the occurrence of a Falcon, under the 

 name of Falco sacer, as occurring in Transcaspia ; but as the latter remark that the feathers on 

 the upper parts are brownish and not grey, and have broad lighter edges, it seems most probable 

 that the bird obtained by them was Falco milvipes. They state (Vog. Transcasp. p. 5) that " in 

 the western portion of the district visited by us it was much rarer than in the south-eastern, 

 where Walter found it the most numerous species of Raptor, breeding all along the new Afghan 

 frontier. Its nesting-places were the steep portions of the clay-sandy hillocks in the desert and 

 the steep banks of the river, and even in the sides of ruined wells, as, for instance, at Gele- 

 tschesme, east of the Murghab. On the 5th May, 1887, two young birds, nearly full-grown, but 

 with much down still in the plumage, were taken out of a nest placed on a conglomerate point of 

 a precipice at Kuschk, near Tschesme-i-bid. The nest was very scantily formed. These Falcous 

 doubtless feed, in this district, chiefly on the numerous Meriones and Spermojahili which inhabit 

 these desert places." 



Col. Prjevalski met with it in Mongolia, and remarks (Rowley's Orn. Misc. ii. p. 149) that 

 he nowhere observed or obtained F. sacer in the districts visited by him, but only F. milvipes. 

 " We only obtained," he writes, " four specimens (two males and two females), of which three 

 (two males and one female) completely correspond with Hume's description, with only insignificant 

 differences. The second female, which is rather younger than the three former specimens (being 

 distinguished by having blue and not yellow legs), differs from them by the absence of a fully 

 striped tail, as only incomplete reddish-yellow bands are perceptible on the inner webs of the 

 tail-feathers, whilst the outer webs are marked with spots of the same colour as the bands. 

 A°-ain, the yellow streaks of the female F. hendersoni are replaced in the present specimen by 

 spots of the same colour. The breast has large dark brown spots, just like in true F. sacer, 

 whilst in F. hendersoni, as also in our three specimens, the breast is milk-white, marked with 

 narrow triangular small spots. The bill is black at the point and bluish at the base, and has 

 only on the lower mandible a yellow mark, which colour is predominant on both mandibles in 

 our three specimens." 



According to Professor Menzbier (Orn. Turk. p. 297), " Dr. Severtzoff obtained a very adult 

 female in the Alai Mountains at the entrance of the Kizil-Arte defile, and remarks that he 



