309b. 



158 



Size similar ; wing ^ 7-7.50 in. ; tail 5.25 ; 

 ? wing 7.25-7.5 in. ; ^ head much darker, 

 blackish slate ; above darker rufous ; 

 tail band 18-22 mm. (central widest, 

 northern and southern narrowest) ; below 

 much deeper cinnamon ; spots on sides 

 fewer (exxept in less mature birds) ; $ 

 above (including tail) and below much 

 darker cinnamon rufous ; wing quills 

 washed with rufous on inner webs, the 

 black bars much narrower and white inter- 

 spaces 6 mm. wide ; tail bands narrow 

 and regular as in C. s. cinnamomina, but 

 underside much less white and bars 

 appearing much narrower, with no black 

 terminal band. 



Cerchneis cinnamomina equatorialis Mearns, 

 Auk., 1892, p. 269. [<^" Guayaquil," errore 

 = interior of Equador, type No. 101, 309 in 

 coll. U.S. Nat. Mus.] 



[C. c. cauccB Chapm. and C. c. andina 

 Cory, synonyms.]* 

 Andean Kestrel. 



Slightly larger ; wing S 7.50 in. ; more 

 deeply coloured and more heavily marked ; 

 vent and under tail-coverts clear buff ; 



Ecuador. 

 N. to West 

 Colombia 

 (W. slope 

 of central 

 and 



northern 

 Andes). 



* I think that the absence of exact locaUty for Mearns's type cannot 

 be held to disquahfy his name, as it seems certain the example came from some 

 part of Ecuador, and I accept " interior of Ecuador " as a sufficient locality, 

 since I am unable to distinguish four (?) separate races for Ecuador as set 

 forth by Cory (Eield Mus. Pub. Orn., Ser. i,, pp. 319-23). C. c. caiicce appears 

 to me to be a northern extension of this dark form, reducing in size slightly ; 

 C. c. andina appears to rest on the largest and darkest birds, with fewest spots 

 on sides, and presumably the most mature, judging by the description and 

 by presumed examples I have seen. His C. c. peruviana, being the paler 

 southern examples, is in my opinion untenable, as most Peruvian birds can 

 be referred either to cinnamomina or anstralis. There are only two groups of 

 forms in South America, the larger cinnamomina and the smaller isabellina. 

 If a bird is of fair size and has spotted sides when quite adult it must belong 

 to the former, and if small, with unspotted sides when adult, it must belong 

 to the latter. To treat both as forms of sparveria, as Cory does, is confusing. 

 It cannot be too strongl}^ emphasised that the spotting in the isabellina 

 group is immaturity ; in cinnamomina it remains in the adult, but must vary 

 as we get away from the typical race. Andina by its size appears to belong 

 to the cinnamomina group, and according to Cory's description the spots are 

 not entirely absent. 



