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Show 1871.] RAPTORIAL BIRDS OF INDIA. 677 these details. One of a pair in my collection is fully half an inch longer than its companion egg; and I have several that are quite up to the majority of the plates in ' Ootheca Wolleyana.' Although the Neophron builds at times on cliffs and old ruins, in this part of the country they seem to prefer doing so on trees; and the nests that were examined by m e this year were built alike on the mango, tamarind, peepul, and burgot. One of a pair that built close to m y house was in the immature plumage, but I failed to discover whether it was the male or female. I saw a pair of these birds quartering the rock-side at Aden when anchored off that fort; were they the African or Indian form ? The Neophron copulates on the ground; and the operation is stow and tedious. 8. FALCO PEREGRINUS, Gmel. (The Peregrine Falcon.) Generally distributed in suitable localities, and essentially a Duck- Hawk in this as well as in other countries. The Bhyree is a cold-weather visitant to the plains of India, arrives in October and November, according to locality, and leaves again in April. I procured five specimens of this Falcon ; and they were all, when shot, within sight of jheels or swamps. They have invariably allowed me to approach within easy shooting-distance, even when they were about to take a duck. The following extracts from my notebook, relating to this species, may not prove uninteresting:- "Camp, Mynpoory, Jan. 7, 1871.-Shot a young male in the plain brown stage when sitting on the edge of a jheel. Crop contained part of a Teal. Weighed 1 lb. 10 oz., while a male F. jugger shot the same day weighed only 1 lb. 3 oz. The latter, however, was weighed on an empty stomach." "Camp, Futtehgurh district, Jan. 30, 1871.-Tent pitched on the edge of the Indurgurh jheel, which is actually alive with different kinds of Ducks, Waders, and Siberian Cranes (Grus leuco-geranus). A charming place for an ornithologist! Late in the evening shot a mature female Peregrine from the bough of a huge peepul tree which overlooked the jheel. Weight 2 lb. 4\ oz. Length 20, wing 15, expanse 44 inches. Cere, legs, and feet pale greenish yellow ; eyelids very pale yellow, orbital space whitish, with a tinge of green; basal half of both mandibles pale blue, blackish at the point. " Simultaneously with m y shot, out flew another Falcon from the same tree, uttering a shrieking noise, and making several swoops at the wounded bird on the ground. It, however, proved to be a male Jugger, and not the pair to the Peregrine, which I was in hopes it would have turned out." "Camp, Etawah district, Feb. 9, 1871.-Shot another fully mature female close to the canal this morning. She had just flown round a large grassy plain, striking terror into the Blue Rocks (Columba intermedia), and making the so-called Ortolans (Calandrella brachydactyla) rise in clouds like flights of locusts, and perched on a low thorny bush, where she was easily approached and shot. |