FALCON. 207 



135— BASSUN FALCON, 



LENGTH 14 inches ; weight 7 ounces 11 drams, and about the 

 same size and figure of the Sparrow-Hawk ; plumage above like that 

 bird ; at the beginning of the back a small white patch or two : hind 

 part of the neck marked with bro\vu spots ; beneath white, crossed 

 with cuned, pale, dusky, cordated streaks, pointed on the under 

 part ; quills dark ; tail brown, crossed with four dark bands, the ends 

 paler, in shape even ; the wings reach to near three-fourths of the 

 length ; legs pale yellow ; (.-laws blackish, differing from our 

 SpaiTOw-Hawk in having no bed of white at the nape, and the 

 tiansverse bands on the belly less numerous. 



The female, called Bassa, is much the same, but the colours 

 more dull ; beneath, for the most part, the feathers have pale rufous 

 sti'eaks down the middle, and across the breast and belly some 

 irregular dusky brown blotches; thighs in both pale ; tail as in the 

 male ; over the eye, from the forehead, a broad, mixed, white trace, 

 less seen in the male. 



Inhabits India, about Futtehghur. — Gen. Hardwicke. 



