Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue of Accipitrcs. 291 



of the young males [of T'mnunculus sparverius], as stated by 

 Mr. Sliarpe, resembles the old female ' ^. So far as the true 

 T. sparverius of North Amcriea is concerned, this is, most 

 certainly, not the case : I have examined a very large number 

 of young birds of this species, and have always found the sexes 

 distinguished in their first plumage, just as they are in their 

 fully adult dress ; in fact there is no essential difference in 

 either sex between very young and fully adult birds, the chief 

 difference consisting in sharper definition of the markings in 

 the latter, the same being in young birds more indistinct or 

 somewhat suffused with the ground-colourf. So far as I have 

 been able to judge from an examination of specimens, this same 

 rule holds good with all other American Tinnunculi, except 

 T. sparverioides, in which young males have more or less 

 rufous on the dorsal surface, the same being wholly absent 

 in fully mature birds," 



I also find that I was wrong in the same article (p. 556) in 

 assenting to Mr. Ridgway^s suggestion that the Kestrel of 

 the Antilles ought to bear the subspecific appellation of 

 '' antillarum, Gmel." as its correct designation is '' car'ih- 

 baarumX, Gmel/^ " Falco antillarum " of Gmelin is founded 

 on the " Mansfeny " of Du Tertre, a species which it is, I 

 think, impossible to identify with certainty, but which is 

 evidently some bird much larger and more powerful than a 

 Kestrel. 



In examining the restricted genus Falco, it may be well to 

 commence with F. peregrinator as the species approaching 

 most nearly to the genus HypotriorcMs, and at the same time 

 to refer to a closely allied race, F. atriceps. 



Mr. Sharpe has included the latter, though with some 



* Vide Ibis, 1881, p. 549. 



t A very young male and female of Tinnuncidus sparverius, taken in 

 the United States, with the sheaths still remaining on the base of the 

 primaries, have recently been presented by the Smithsonian Institution 

 to the Norwich Museum, and entirely agree with Mr. Ridgway's descrip- 

 tion, thus exhibiting a very curious de^•iation from tlie usual rule of the 

 male in its first plumage resembling the adult female, in cases where the 

 adult plumage of the seses differs. 



X r«/<^ ' Systema Natura; ' (1788), vol. i. p. 284, "No. 118 y." 



