426 FAICONIBJE. 



Adult male. Upper parts brick-red, with a few arrow-head mark- 

 ings of black, larger on the inner secondaries ; primary coverts and 

 quills dark brown, the former narrowly margined with rufous, the 

 primaries notched with white for about two thirds of their length, 

 the inner primaries and outer secondaries narrowly edged and tipped 

 with buffy white ; head and neck clear blue-grey, with narrow black 

 shaft-stripes ; forehead and narrow eyebrow huffy white ; cheeks 

 silvery grey, inclining to blackish below the eye and on the fore part 

 of cheeks, forming a tolerably distinct moustache ; lower back, rump, 

 upper tail-coverts, and tail clear blue-grey, the latter tipped with 

 ashy white, before which is a broad subterminal band of black ; 

 throat and under tail-coverts buff, unspotted ; remainder of under 

 surface rufous fawn ; the chest-feathers mesially streaked with black, 

 these dark centres being larger and more oval in shape on the flank- 

 feathers ; the thighs clear rufous, unspotted ; under wing-coverts 

 white, spotted with black ; bill bluish horn-colour, black at tip, yel- 

 lowish at base ; cere, orbits, and feet yellow ; iris brown. Total 

 length 12-5 inches, culmen 1'75, wing 9-2, tail 6-7, tarsus 1-6. 



Adult female. Similar to the male underneath, but not so deeply 

 coloured. Upper surface entirely rufous, banded with black, with a 

 faiut bluish shade on the rump ; the upper tail-coverts inclining to 

 buff ; head rufous, streaked with black ; tail rufoiis, banded with 

 black, the bars not being strictly continuous, tipped with huffy white, 

 before which is a conspicuous broad baud of black ; facial features 

 and soft parts as in the male. Total length 12-5 inches, culmen -75, 

 wing 9-2, tail 6'5, tarsus 1*6. 



Young male. Eesembling the old female, but rather paler and 

 more distinctly striped on the breast. The tail first changes, becom- 

 ing blue like that of the old male ; and thus birds are often seen in 

 partial plumage, having the blue tail of the adult male, hut retaining 

 the rufous head of the old female dress. 



Hah. The whole of Europe aud Northern Asia, migrating in winter 

 into 'N. China, the Indian peninsula, and N.E. Africa, occasionally 

 wandering into Western and Southern Africa and the Seychelles. 



Obs. In certain countries along the southern habitat of the com- 

 mon Kestrel occurs a dark resident form which has by some authors 

 been considered to be a distinct species. To the westward the dark 

 race is first found in Madeira and the Canaries, and does not seem 

 to occur in Europe proper. In Senegambia it may also occur, as 

 suggested by Mr. Godmau (' Ibis,' 1872, p. 16.5), as it was probably 

 a dark Kestrel that Swainson named Falco rufescens. Again, in 

 Abyssinia the same dark-coloured form occurs, and has received the 

 name of Falco rupicolcefonnis ; and it is not until we get to the 

 Himalayas that another intensified race is met Avith : here it is the 

 F. interstinctus of M'Clelland. Mr. Blyth seems to have seen a 

 similar race from Burmah, as a Kestrel is mentioned on his authority 

 by Mr. G. E. Gray (Hand-l. B. i. p. 23) under the name of Tinnun- 

 culus atratus ; but I have not yet succeeded in unearthing Mr. Blyth's 

 own reference. In China and Japan the largest and darkest race of 



