6 ARKIV FÖR ZOOLOGI. BAND 2. N:0 9. 



district. Oberholser has recently^ stated that specimens 

 »from Cashmere and Ladak are much darker, particularly 

 above, than those from Europé and should apparently bear 

 the subspecific name interstincta Mc Clelland^». But he says 

 that birds» from the Thianshan Mountains and Eastern Tur- 

 kestan are, however, paler, and apparently must be referred 

 to the European form». From the notes above is, however, 

 apparent that these specimens do not agree with the common 

 Kestrel, for instance in Scandinavia. 



24. Falco subbuteo cyanescens subsp. n. (?) 



o^ i/ö, ^ '/5 1902 BaimgoL 



Wing 270 mm. 



I have compared this Hobby with a number of specimens 

 from Sweden and other parts of Europé, but I have not 

 found any by far so pale-coloured as the birds from Tianshan. 

 It is evidently adult birds to judge from the richness of 

 the colouration and the absence of fulvous edgings to the 

 feathers of the back and wings. — Forehead whitish, a rather 

 broad white eyebrow. Crown of the head sia ty but with 

 rather broad sandy white edges to the feathers so that the 

 general appearance is rather påle with the black shaftstripes 

 well conspicuous. Spöts on the nape ferrugineous. Upper 

 part of the mantle, back, rump, wingcoverts and secondaries 

 bluish ash (hardly darker than Circus cyaneus) with narrow 

 blackish shaftstripes which are quite prominent against the 

 påle ground colour. Primaries blackish, secondaries more 

 slaty, all quills with påle rufous transverse markings on the 

 inner web. Sides of head, foreneck and under parts like the 

 same of the common Hobby. The distribution of the colou- 

 ration of the axillaries and greater under wing coverts may 

 suitably be described as follows^: blackish brown with large 

 round spöts on both webs arranged in pairs, creamy white 

 with buff margins. Tighs rich ferrugineous red without spöts 

 Under tail-coverts a little paler. Tail påle slaty brown with 

 rufous transverse bars on the inner web which, however, di- 

 stally are rather faintly developed. In addition to the discre- 

 pancies with regard to colouration the Hobby from Tianshan 



1 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Vol. 22. Washington 1900. * 



^ The same also holds good for the Common Hobby inmany instances. 



