Birds of Celebes: Falconidae. 
83 
Indian Islands. More evidence is, however, to be desired, since the closely 
similar F.lunulatus occurs also among the same islands; and in Palawan White- 
head regards F. severus as a migratory bird (d 13). It is much to be regretted 
— as has been already remarked - — that the dates when specimens are shot 
are so rarely recorded; sufficient of them would enable ornithologists to draw 
conclusions as to the stationary or migratory habits of species. In the present 
case we have been able to find only the following: 
Locality Specimens Montlis Season Keference 
Java 3 ... June Fine . 2, S'"'®, 10 
Negros 1 ... February .... ?. d 5'“'^ 
Mindanao 1 ... April 7 . d 
Mindoro 1 ... October ? . Platen 
Palawan 3 or more Summer and Autumn ? . dl2,dl3,14 
N. Celebes 1 ... May Fine . Nat. Coll. 
N. Celebes 1 . . . June Fine . Nat. Coll. 
S. Celebes 1 ... January Eainy d 7 
Finscbliafen, New Ouinea 1 . . . March Fine . Mus. Dr. 
It will be seen that specimens have been obtained in one or other part of 
the Archipelago in summer and winter, fine season and wet; hence it is imju'o- 
bable that the species is migratory in the strict sense of the term, and this 
condition is what is wanted before local differences can be insisted upon. The 
three New^ Guinea specimens in the Dresden Museum, and four from New 
Guinea, Salawatti and New Britain in the British Museum, are of a blacker 
slaty above than is usual in Indian specimens and in two before us from Java. 
In the coloration of the under surface the New Guinea form agrees with the 
Indian one, but the under side of the wing and tail are nearly uniform dusky 
brown, only a few bars on the inner w^ebs being present at the base of the 
primaries, while on the tail the bars are almost, or quite, completely obliterated. 
Indian specimens have the inner w'eb of the quills and tail barred with cin- 
namon for almost their entire length, but the barring on the under side of the 
tail is less distinct in the adult male than in the adult female or in the young. 
In the adult male the tail above is almost uniform dark ashy, with a sub- 
terminal black bar; in the adult female it is distinctly barred with black through- 
out its length. Young specimens from India have the tail above blackish browm, 
not barred; below barred with cinnamon. Javan specimens, young and old, 
appear to run midway between those of India and New Guinea, judging from 
the two in the Dresden Museum. As to Celebes, the adult male in the British 
Museum is not to be separated from New Guinea specimens; and two since 
received from our native collectors are apparently similar ones; the young 
specimen from Celebes in the British Museum corresponds best, however, with 
a young bird from Sikkim as regards the markings on the tail. Javan and 
Celebesian birds must therefore be marked as intermediate between the geographical 
extreme developments of the sj^ecies. Birds from the most eastern bounds of the 
11 * 
