FALCO PEEEGRINATOK. 
(THE INDIAN PEREGRINE.) 
Falco peregrinator, Sund. Phys. Tidssk. Lund, 1837, p. 177, pi. 4; Gray, Gen. Birds, i. p. 19 
(1844); Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 14 (1849); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 
1853, xii. p. 102 ; Gould, B. of Asia, pt. 3 (1851) ; Blyth, J. A. S. B. xix. p. 321 (1851) ; 
Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. p. 18. no. 20 (1854) ; Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 25 
(1862); Hume, Rough Notes, i. p. 55 (1869); Jerd. Ibis, 1870, p. 237; Holdsworth, 
P. Z. S. 1872, p. 410; Sharpe, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, xi. p. 223 (1873); id. 
Cat. B. i. p. 382 (1874) ; Legge, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 195 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 23 
(1874); Walden, on Col. Tickell’s MS. 111. Ind. Orn., Ibis (1876), p. 342. 
Falco shalieen , Jerd. Madr. Journ. x. p. 81 (1839); id. 111. Ind. Orn. pis. 12 & 28 (1847). 
Falco sultaneus, Ilodgs. in Gray’s Zool. Misc. p. 81 (1844). 
Falco ruber, Schl. Mus. P.-B. Falc. p. 5 (1862). 
The Shahin Falcon, Jerdon, B. of India; Royal Falcon of some. 
Shahin, “Royal bird ” (female), Kohee Koela (male), Hind. ; Jawolum, Tel. ; Wallur, Tam. 
TJkussa, Sinhalese. 
Adult male (from Ceylonese and Indian examples). Length to front of cere 13 - 9 to 14‘2 inches ; culmenfrom cere 09 
to l'O ; wing 11-4 to 11*6, expanse about 34-0 ; tail 6-0 to 6’4; tarsus 2-0 ; middle toe 2T, claw (straight) 0-7 ; 
hind toe 0'85, claw (straight) 0-9 ; height of bill at cere 0-45. 
Female. Length to front of cere 15'0 inches ; culmen from cere IT ; wing 12'0 to 13 - 3, expanse of the latter 38'2. 
A male from Ceylon measured 11*6, and a female 12-8 in the wing. 
Iris dark umber-brown ; cere, eyelid, and gape ochre-yellow ; bill dark plumbeous, changing to greenish near the cere ; 
legs and feet chrome-yellow, claws black. 
Head, hind neck, and upper back ashy blackish, deepest on the sides of the neck and paling gradually into bluish ashy on 
the rump and upper tail-coverts, the latter part being the lightest ; all the feathers with dark shafts, the scapulars 
and wing-coverts edged with pale ashy and tho lower back and tail-coverts crossed on the centre of the feathers 
with dark wavy bars, often concealed by the tips of the overlying feathers ; lesser coverts darker than the median ; 
quills blackish brown, the shorter primaries slightly pervaded with grey, and the whole narrowly barred on the 
inner webs with fulvous or light rufous-grey, according to the age of the bird ; the secondaries paler than the 
primaries, and tipped with dull whitish ; tail ashy blackish, tipped with rufescent and barred chiefly at the base 
with softened slaty markings ; edge of the forehead buff with dark shafts. 
Cheeks and moustachial stripe black, blending into the paler hue of the head ; chin and throat rufescent white, passing 
on the chest into pale rufous, and from that into the rich rufous of the breast, flanks, and lower parts ; shafts of 
the chest-feathers darker rufous than the web ; flanks and under tail-coverts crossed on the centre of the feather 
with narrow lines of blackish ; under wing-coverts dark rufescent, with darker shafts and cinereous black barrings ; 
greater row brownish, barred with rufescent. 
Ohs. The rufous of the under surface is variable in depth, notwithstanding that the bird may be fully adult. Ceylonese 
examples in my collection correspond well with Indian, old birds, devoid of any barring on the breast, being 
scarcely less dark on the head and hind neck than the blackish-headed Nepaul birds ( Falco atriceps , Ilume). 
Home examples in the British Museum from Northern India present puzzling characteristics. There is one from Simla, 
presented by Capt. Pinwill, which has the appearance of a rather small Common Peregrine with a very rufous 
under surface. The feathers of the back and rump and the scapulars are as much barred as in F. peregrinus ; the 
chest is marked with fine mesial points like that species ; the breast and lower parts are rufous-grey, and barred 
with narrow cross rays of blackish brown as in an old Peregrine, with the exception that the markings are closer 
together ; the flanks and under tail-coverts are likewise tinged with bluish grey. 
