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Show 678 MR. A. ANDERSON ON THE [Nov. 21, Weight 1 lb. 14A oz. Length 19, wing 14 inches. Legs and feet yellow, with a slight tinge of green. "The same morning I shot a female Jugtrer Falcon, as I was anxious to compare the two birds in the flesh. The two Falcons correspond exactly in linear dimensions ; but there is a considerable difference in their weight, the latter being 4 oz. lighter than the former. "Camp, Mvnpoory Canal, March 16, 1871.-Encamped in a glorious place "for Raptores. I had just bagged nine female Sarcidiornis melanotus (with one shot) for the use of m y camp-followers, and was meditating whether it would be better to go after a Spotted Eagle which had just carried away a small fish from the edge of the water, or after a female Imperial in the lineated stage, when I observed a Falcon skim over the surface of the water like a flash of lightning, and settle on a piece of rising ground, from which eminence she might have taken her pick of almost any Duck or Wader in the Indian list. The whole feathered creation for miles round had apparently assembled at this jheel (one of the few containing water so late in the season) preparatory to making a final migration northwards. This bird, again, proved to be a fine adult female. " Weight 2 lb. 3\ oz. Cere, gape, and orbital space lemon-yellow, with a tinge of green ; basal half of both mandibles greenish horny, rest pale blue ; irides dark hazel-brown." "Futtehgurh, April 13, 1871.-My shikaree brought me an immature female this morning, shot on the banks of the Ganges, as he says, in the act of striking a Greenshank (Totanus glottis), which is likely enough, as the migratory Ducks have by this time left this" part of the country. " This Falcon is in rather an interesting stage, as she has three blue feathers on her back, which are quite conspicuous in the plain brown plumage. "Weight 2 lb. 2oz. Length 20*4 ; wing 14*3 inches. Legs and feet pale yellowish green ; cere pale green, basal half of both mandibles pale bluish with a tinge of yellow; orbital space whitish, yellow at the angle of the eye." It is very extraordinary that four out of five of these Peregrines (and I lost a wounded female besides), as also the only examples of F. peregrinator and F. atriceps obtained by me, should be females. I have observed the same preponderance of females over males in almost all the Raptorial birds collected by m e ; and when mentioning the circumstance to Mr. Brooks, he informed me that he had noticed the same thing. 9. FALCO PEREGRINATOR, Sund. (The Shaheen Falcon.) The only specimen of this species obtained was shot late on the evening of the 25th of January last, just as she (sex determined by dissection) had missed her quarry, a Rose-headed Parrakeet (Palceornis rosa), and alighted on a lofty peepul tree. I was returning to m y camp, after a long and fruitless tramp after Raptores; and as it was close to this very place where, some two and a half months before, a beautiful female specimen of Falco atriceps |
