FALCO SEVERUS. 
Ill 
Adult female. Length to front of cere 11-0 to 12-0 inches ; culinen from cere 065 ; wing 02 to 07 ; tail 4-9 ; tarsus 
1-3 to 1-4 ; middle toe 1'3, claw (straight) 0-5. The wing sometimes reaches Oo beyond the tail. 
Iris deep brown ; cere and bill at base yellow, the upper mandible and tip of the lower blackish ; legs and feet yellow, 
Entire face, head, hind neck, and interscapular region glossy black, paling into blackish slaty on the back, wings, 
rump, and upper tail-coverts ; the feathers on these parts have the shafts black and the bases ac is rown, e 
slaty hue being confined to the tips of the feathers ; on the head and hind neck theie is an as len ue , t|ui 
blackish brown, the inner webs more or less barred with rufous (in some very old birds these are almost absent or 
reduced to pale transverse dashes); tail slaty black, tipped finely with rufous, and m some with a subtermina 
band, such examples having the outer feathers with rufous or greyish bars on the inner webs. Some examples 
have undefined slaty bars across the whole tail. , 
Throat and fore neck buff, tinged with rufous, the colour running up into the sides of the neck, all beneath from the 
fore neck, with the thighs, under tail- and under wing-coverts, deep chestnut or ferruginous ; under pnman -cove t 
paler rufous, barred with black ; the remainder of the wing-lining with black shaft-lines ; sides of the chest wit 
few black patches, running into the black hind neck ; middle of the chest usually with a few black shaft-lines. 
Young. The immature bird is almost as dark above as the adult ; but the exposed portions of the sides of the hind- 
neck feathers are more or less rufous, the central tail-feathers are crossed with greyish markings, and the inner 
webs of the remaining feathers barred with rufous ; extreme tips of the secondaries whitish ; chm and throat as 
in the adult, the rufous of the under surface not quite so deep ; the chest streaked with drop-shaped striffi of 
black, and the breast and flanks marked with oval central drops, the thighs and under tail-coverts with centra 
streaks, longer and narrower than the breast-markings. 
Distribution— The handsome Indian Hobby can only be classed in our lists as a straggler, having been 
but twice procured in the island. The first record of it as a Ceylonese bird is contained in Mr. Holdsworth’s 
Catalogue ( loc . cit.), from a specimen shot by Mr. Bligh, at Catton Estate, Haputale ; but from recent investi- 
gation as noticed in the preceding article, I find that Layard killed another example which is, in all proba- 
hiUtv referable to Lie Falco pmJ nnat,r shot at Gill, mall, , and he therefore must he looked upon a. the 
discoverer of the species in Ceylon. I imagine that both the® specimen, were killed dumrg the eool season, 
and that without doubt the species is migratory to Ceylon, as it is to South in ia • , 
This Hobby is a bird of fairly wide distribution, being found throughout the whole of the Indian peninsula 
Adult female. Length to front of cere (from skin) 13 - 0 ; wing 8 - 5 to 9T ; tail 6-5 to 6 - 8 ; tarsus 1-6 to 1 t • Weight 
8'5 oz. (Hume). 
The above measurements are from X. Bengal and Nepaul specimens. 
“ Iris rather light brown ; orbits yellow ; bill greenish yellow at base, bluish black at tip ; legs and feet pure (slightly 
orange) yellow.” (Hume.) , 
Head, back, and sides of neck cinnamon-rufous ; a monstachial streak of a paler hue than the heac , e "een w ic an 
the eye is a blackish streak; a dark superciliary line ; back, rump, scapulars, and wing-coverts bluish slate, paling 
gradually towards the tail, and blending somewhat into the hue of the neck ; the feathers o ese par swi t ar t 
shafts; wing-coverts at the point of the wing barred with blackish grey; feathers along the ulna edged with 
rufous, and beyond this the edge of the wing is buff -white ; primaries deep brown, the inner we s larrec narrow } 
with white, not reaching on the terminal half to the edge of the feather ; primary-coverts an secon anes s a e 
grey, the inner webs alboscont and barred with hlaekish grey ; tail pale bluish grey, lighter than the coverts, eep y 
tipped with greyish white, and crossed with a broad subterminal black band, the remainder crossed with narrow 
widely separated rays of blackish grey. , , 
Chin throat sides of the face, and under surface white, barred from the breast downwards with blackish grey or da 
slate-colour, and the markings on the centre of the breast somewhat pointed at the middle of the feather ; flan s 
more heavily barred than the breast ; under wing-coverts white, the external feathers with dark mesial lines, t e 
inner ones barred like the chest. , , , 
Females that I have examined in the British Museum have the under wing-coverts more darkly barred than males. 
The tail-band appears to fade very much in this species, turning brown when the feathers become old. 
