Si 



Catalogue of the Birds 



[July 



33.—^. Dussumerii.—F. Dussumerii, Temm.Y.C. ?—Bisha (the female) 

 jB as keen (the male),H. 

 I have not hitherto seen this sparrow hawk, and take the following 

 brief description from Mr. Elliot's notes : "Above, brown, white eyebrow 

 tail with 5 or 6 bars; beneath, white barred, and a tinge of reddish on 

 breast ; utters a plaintive cry like the besra ; legs long and thin." Colonel 

 Sykes says, 1 Irides bright yellow, wings short, tail long and narrow (6§ 

 inches) ; total length of a female 12-|- inches. 'As I before stated,! think that 

 this species may be yet undescribed, for several specimens of F. Dussu- 

 merii appear to have been taken home by the French travellers, and 

 the Shikra is the only species at all common. 



34. — A. Besra. — New species ? — Besra (female), Dhotee (male), H. 



Of this species I am also ignorant, and am indebted again to Mr. El- 

 liot's notes for the following very brief notice. 



" Above, brown; beneath, white with brown spots ; becoming more 

 cinereous with age, and the spots beneath becoming broad bars ; cere 

 and legs greenish yellow ; eyes yellow, large pupil ; length about 12 in- 

 ches, tarsus 2 X -V of an inch."* 



35. —^. fringiUarius. — English sparrow-hawlc.\ - 



I shot a specimen of what I suppose may be the European species in 

 thick and lofty jungle on the Coonoor pass of the Neilgherries, at about 

 5000 feet of elevation — 1 add a description of my specimen : — Above of a 

 deep clove brown with black reflections, head and back of neck almost 

 black, tail light grey, with 4 broad dark bars on the centre feathers, and 6 

 on the external ones, face and ears dusky, throat white, with a longitu- 

 . clinal stripe, and a few streaks of dusky black ; breast,abdomen, and thigh 

 coverts, white, numerously and broadly barred with rufous brown, mixed 

 with dusky brown ; under tail coverts pure white ; cere and legs lemon 

 yellow ; irides bright yellow; total length 14£ ; wings to end of 4th quill 

 7£ ; tail 5- T 9 oths ; tarsus 2 ; middle-toe l- T Vhs ; tarsi thin, with the ante- 

 rior and posterior scales each of one entire piece; no lateral scales. 



* I have only met with it in the Soonda jungles. where it is taken young by a caste call- 

 ed Halapylcs, and sold to falconers from Hyderabad. — W. E. 



+ I think the Basha will ultimately turn out to be identical with this. My impression 

 on seeing the Basha in the Gykivars Shikar Khanah at Baroda, was that it was the Eng- 

 lish sparrow hawk. It was very like the Baz in miniature, which I here first identified 

 as the Goshawk.— W . E. * 



