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Show 778 MR. A. ANDERSON ON THE " RAPTORIAL [Dec. 5, I am not aware whether the nestling- and first plumage of P. plumbeus has yet been described. *10. FALCO SACER, Schl. This is probably the least to be expected of all the Raptores I have hitherto recorded from this part of the country. In short, it is the first occurrence of this noble Falcon known to m e so far east of the desert country of the Punjab ; and as such it makes an exceedingly interesting addition to m y previous lists. It was on February 28th last, just three weeks to a day after the capture of P. plumbeus, that the Saker now referred to was obtained. The plain on which this bird was shot extends for miles along the banks of the Mainpuri Canal, commencing at the junction of the Etawah road, at a place called Dhurous. There are few localities I have worked more thoroughly than this ; and it offers attractions equally great to the sportsman and naturalist. The solitary trees that are studded about this open desert-looking country are each occupied by the larger eagles and birds-of-prey generally; and the marshes offer excellent retreats for water-birds, which in numbers and variety are probably not surpassed iu any part of the world. The dense fringe of brush-wood of young Sisso-trees that clothe both banks of the canal, afford shelter to our migratory Thrushes, such as Pitta bengalensis, Petrocossyphus cyaneus, Orcecetes cinclorhynchus, Turdus unicolor and T. atrogularis (the last-mentioned having occurred in considerable numbers last winter) ; while the Babool trees that overlook the water are a sure find for Brooks's new Leaf-Warbler (Beguloides subviridis), as well as for the Phylloscopina generally, of which group m y list comprises no less than a dozen species*. The labyrinth of rank high reeds and rushes which grow in patches where the water has oozed through the bank, in many places sufficiently dense to hold pigs, harbours Rails, immense flocks of Passerine birds (including Ploceus bengalensis, a species not recorded by Jerdon from the N.W. P.), and several Reed-Warblers, the most interesting being the skulking Locustella hendersoni, and Sylvia melanopogon, which are amongst the least-persecuted of birds, owing to the impregnable nature of the ground they affect. Should you have exhausted the ornithological treasures of an elysium like this, you have merely to make a detour of a mile or two to fall in with Blackbuck, or, better still, to course Fawns, Hares, or the Desert-Foxf. To return to Falco sacer, it was just as we had run a hare to ground*];, late on the evening of the afore-mentioned date, and I was * A Catalogue of the Birds of the Plains proper that I have recently drawn up for the 'Provincial Gazetteer,' contains 443 species; but of course this list makes no pretension to completeness. t Vulpes leucopus is not recorded by Jerdon from the N . W . P.; but it is the Fox of the large sandy downs of all the districts to the west of Cawnpore. Not long ago I killed a splendid female of this fine species within a mile of the city of Futtehgurh. i Jerdon, it will be observed, on referring to his' Mammals of India,' p. 224, was well aware of the eccentric habit of this common Indian Hare (Lepus ruji-caudatus). |