FALCO PEREGfEINATOE. 
107 
Young. Whig of a male 10-6 inches. Cere yellowish, tinged with green, in some entirely bluish ; legs and feet 
greenish yellow. . , , 
Above brownish black, the feathers of the back and wing-coverts with fine pale margins, the scapulars tipped with 
rufous and some of the concealed portions of the feathers barred with the same ; rump edged with rufous, upper 
tail-coverts tipped and barred with a paler hue; quills deep brown, the bars of the inner webs more rufous than 
in the adult ; tail barred obscurely with rufous, which on the central feathers is of a dusky hue. 
Cheeks and moustachial stripe blackish brown ; throat and chest white, passing into rufescent buff on the breast an 
flanks; the chest and the white space above the moustache streaked with shaft-lines of brown, expanding at t t 
tip ; breast streaked broadly with brown, the lower flank-feathers deeply tipped and marked with bar- like spots of 
the same ; the abdomen, under tail-coverts, and thighs are paler than the breast, the former streaked sum ar v 
to the chest and the thighs more boldly marked, some of the longer feathers having bar-like spots ; under tai - 
coverts barred with brown ; under wing-coverts whitish, with irregular cross-markings of biown. 
At the first moult the following change takes place : — the rump and the base of the tail assume a cinereous hue, the 
edgings of the scapulars are less conspicuous, the bars of the primary inner webs become paler and the shaft- 
stripes ou the chest narrower, the breast and flanks darker rufous, this hue extending to the belly and thighs, and 
the stripes on the flanks turn into bars. 
The back and rump from this stage onwards begin to turn grey, the shafts of these parts and of the scapulars standing 
out darkly ; the stripes on the centre of the breast disappear altogether in some examples, leaving the flanks 
barred to a greater or less extent. 
Distribution . — This bold and handsome Falcon was recorded by Layard ( loc . cit.) as having been shot by 
his collector and servant near the beautiful upland plain of G-illymally. The account of the specimen in 
question referred chiefly to its long wings causing the native “ Muttoo ” to think that it was a “ large Swift,” 
deceiving Layard also, who says of the bird, “ which I also mistook for a Swift, so much did its wings overlap 
its tail ” I have carefully examined the whole collection at Poole, and there is not in it any example of 
F. peregrimtor ; but there is one of a female Falco sevens, • bird not recorded by Layard in bis list. I am 
therefore of opinion that be did not correctly identify the bird shot on the occasion m question, but that 
it was in reality a specimen of the Indian Hobby, to which his remark, aa to length of wing &e would relate 
with correctness. I hare written to him on the subject! and in hi. last letter to me from New Caledonia 
he says that he has no doubt the bird was the latter species. Should this surmise e correc 1 is 1 cu o 
say when the bird was first discovered in Ceylon ; but I imagine that my reference in Stiay ea lers, t o, 
to the Pigeon-Island specimens is the first actual record of the bird’s occurrence in the island. It is lesic ent 
in Ceylon, but by no means common, and frequents such very retired spots or inaccessible cliffs that it is 
rarely met with by the ordinary sportsman. A pair usually affected the cliffs at Fort Frederick during the 
cool season, dividing their time between foraging on the mainland and making inroads upon the Rock-Pigeons 
which swarmed at the island beyond Nilavele. At this spot a pair out of three or four birds which had taken 
up their abode on the northern face were killed by myself and a brother officer in October 1874. This island 
is an out-of-the-way locality, which, stocked as it is with fine pigeons, forms a welcome refuge for the Shaliin. 
As it has so seldom been shot in Ceylon, I quote here the following passage from my notes in ‘ Stray 1 eathers ’ : 
“ The islet is situated 14 miles north of Trincomalie at about 11,- mile from the mainland. Near this place, 
about -g a mile nearer the shore, is another rocky islet frequented by flocks of Columba intermedia , which furnish 
many a dainty meal for the Royal Falcon. Pigeon Island itself is rarely visited except by fishermen, who can 
only land at the south side, where there is a little beach backed by a tangled thicket, which rises gradually to 
the pinnacle in the centre, whence the northern side descends in the form of a perpendicular face right into 
the sea. This cliff, under which it is very difficult to pass on foot, forms a splendid shelter for the Sliahin ; for 
he can perch and roost on the shelves which jut out into the numerous crevices in the face of the rock without 
being disturbed by any one in the island who does not choose to scramble along the almost inaccessible rocks at 
its foot. I visited the spot on the 6tli October 1874, in search of pigeons, and finding none, was clambering 
over the rocks on an adjoining islet, separated at high water from the main portion, when I espied a large 
Falcon coming along over the water and making for the cliff. I quickly turned back, reached the cliff, and 
got out on to an enormous boulder which enfiladed the precipice, affording a good view of the whole of it, but 
not a vestige of the Falcon was to be seen. I then determined to get right underneath, and jumped across a 
p 2 
