162 Notes on various Indian and Malayan Birds. [No. 122. 



bird inhabiting India, but suspect that Major Franklin's F. subbuteo 

 refers to no other.* In Java it is not uncommon. 



2. Syrnium Sinense: Strix Sinensis, Latham, Ind. Orn., Supp.,p. 61 ; 

 Str. orientalis, Shaw, ZooL, VII, 257 ; and figured by Hardwicke 

 and Gray, 17/. Ind. Zool. A young bird, in full-grown nestling plumage; 



* Since the above was written, Mr. Jerdon has kindly favored me with a copy of the 

 printed Supplement to his valuable Catalogue of the Birds of Peninsular India, and 

 with a collection of beautiful coloured drawings of many of the species. Among them 

 is one of a bird referred by that gentleman to F. Subbuteo, and noticed as such in his 

 Supplement; but it exactly agrees with my female above described, and is distinct 

 from the European Hobby. " I obtained a single specimen of this Falcon," he 

 informs us, " during the cold season, in a grove of trees North of Jaulnah. I found its 

 stomach crammed with Libellulee. It was called Doureylee by one native falconer, 

 and Reygee by another, who said it was only a cold weather visitant in the Peninsula, 

 coming in and disappearing along with the Bhyree (F. peregrinus.)" 



The same naturalist has also furnished me with the following description of a small 

 Falcon, recently procured by him upon the Neilghierries in January, and which I some- 

 what incline to think can be no other than the present in a different state of plumage, 

 being probably the immature male. " Length 11| inches, of wing 9| inches, and tail 

 5 inches ; extent 27 inches. Bill deep fleshy-red, the tip dusky ; cere and legs deep 

 orange-red ; claws fleshy ; irides deep brown ; orbitar skin orange yellow. Above dark 

 slaty-grey, some of the feathers centred and tipped darker; the dorsal edged with 

 rusty : tail light grey obsoletely barred : ocular region and cheek-stripe nearly black : 

 narrow frontal band, supercilium, chin, throat, ear-feathers and sides of the neck, 

 white ; breast and abdomen rusty-white with blackish-brown marks, longitudinal 

 on breast, heart-shaped on the sides, and narrow and arrow-like on the centre of the 

 abdomen : vent, under tail-coverts, and thigh-coverts, pale unspotted rusty. Habit, 

 insectivorous." 



The name Falco Aldrovandi, I perceive, is applied by this ornithologist in his Sup- 

 plement to the Shaheen, (his previous F. Shaheen,) with the remark, that he "was 

 misled by the description in Griffith's Cuvier (where it is stated to be only 10 inches 

 long) to consider it und escribed." In the Diet. Class, a" Hist. Nat., however, I also 

 find F. Aldrovandi stated to be 10| inches in length, and Temminck's plate above 

 cited is referred to : again, in Stephens's continuation to Shaw's Zoology (xiii, pt. ii. 

 40), F. Aldrovandi, Tem., is doubtfully identified with F. severus, Horsfield, the 

 length of which, as copied from the latter naturalist, is given as the same. Finally, 

 referring to Dr. Horsfield's amended list of Javanese birds prefixed to his Zoological 

 Researches in Java, I again perceive that F. Aldrovandi is identified with F. severus. 

 On the other hand, Mr. Walter Elliot remarks, that the Shaheen is correctly figured 

 by Temminck as F. Aldrovandi ; this Shaheen measuring from nearly 15 to 19| inches 

 long, according to the sex, and bearing no particular resemblance to the present spe- 

 cies in its colouring. 



At all events, I suspect that F. Subbuteo may be safely expunged from the list of 

 Indian birds hitherto ascertained, the more especially as Mr. Jerdon has certainly 

 mistaken our present species for it, as I presumed Major Franklin had done. Another 

 small Falcon, which I have lately obtained in the vicinity of Calcutta, is F. Tinnun- 

 culoides, Tem., which is figured, too, in one of the coloured drawings of the late Dr. 

 Buchanan Hamilton. 



