234 
Mr. Blythes Commentary 
wings just reach to the tail-tip; and a conspicuous fold of skin 
is continued from beneath the ear to the throat underneath, 
which is little more than indicated in the African example; 
• moreover the throat is quite bare in the Indian species, thinly 
clad with short white feathers in N. percnopterus, and with short 
black feathers in N. pileatus. The last appertains properly to 
the Ethiopian region (south of the Great Desert), the second to 
the southern half of the Eastern Atlantic region, and the first to 
the Indian region. Other African white Rachamahs I find to 
have black bill and claws, but not any Indian ; and referring to 
Vultur meleagris of Pallas, I remark that he describes the 
black-billed race as a scarce bird in the Tauric Chersonesus 
(Crimea); while the Indian race is that figured in the collection 
of drawings presented by Mr. Hodgson to the British Museum. 
This bird appears to be the Vultur ginginianus of Latham (Ind. 
Orn. i. p. 7, and Gen. Hist. B. i. p. 27, pi. 5), founded on the 
“Vautour de Gingi 39 of Sonnerat (Voy. Ind. ii. p. 184). 
8. Ealco peregrinus. 
Having now examined numerous British specimens, I can 
perceive in them no difference whatever from the Indian “ Bhyri.” 
Professor Schlegel considers the Peregrines from all America (to 
the Straits of Magellan) as not differing from those of Europe; 
but “ la variete accidentale foncee de PAustralie,” F. melanogenys, 
he recognizes as only a variety of F. peregrinus , occurring rarely 
in Java (and there preying on Jungle-fowl), and being probably 
the true F. peregrinator of Sundevall. Now in India (as in 
North America) F.peregrinus is a thorough “ Duck-Hawkand 
I should not think it preys often on Jungle-fowl, which are more 
likely to fall victims to the Spizaeti and to Lophospiza trivirgata ; 
and the Australian species also is described by Mr. Gould as 
emphatically a “ Duck-Hawkbut the Indian “Shahin” (F. 
peregrinator ) is much more of a forest-bird, and may now and 
then regale upon Jungle-fowl*. F. melanogenys has always 
appeared to me to be a good definite species, intermediate in 
* In his account of F. jugger, Dr. Jerdon truly remarks:—“While the 
Bhyri prefers the sea-coast and the neighbourhood of lakes, rivers, and 
wet cultivation, and the Shahin delights in hilly and wooded regions, the 
Laggur, on the contrary, frequents open dry plains and the vicinity of 
cultivation” (B. Ind. i. p. 31). 
