i8o 
DIURNAL BIRDS OF FREY. 
is greenish, horn-colour. In the young bird the feet are bluish green. When in its 
full adult dress, which is not assumed till late, and but seldom seen, the saker 
becomes completely barred on the whole of the upper surface with rufous, and is 
then compared by Dr. Sharpe to a gigantic kestrel; the under-parts being creamy 
white, with a few blackish spots on the abdomen passing into bars on the flanks. 
The range of the saker extends from South-Eastern Europe and North- 
Eastern Africa through Central Asia to the north of China. Although not 
saker falcon nat. size), 
definitely known to breed in the plains of India it extends from Afghanistan and 
Gilgit to Peshawur, and thence straggles as far south as Delhi and Amballa. 
F. milvipes, of Central Asia, is now regarded as a distinct species. This noble 
falcon is common in the Danubian principalities, and generally frequents 
open country, although nesting in trees—usually in the neighbourhood of water. 
The nest is not large, and the eggs, which are generally four in number, 
are more pointed than those of most Accipitrines. In the Harriana Desert of India 
these falcons feed largely on a spiny lizard of the genus Uromastix. In Palestine 
