Museum at the Jardin des Plantcs, i^c. 255 



Total length 7'2 iuclieSj culmen '55, wing 4"25, tail 2*8, tar- 

 sus '9. Both of Pere David's specimens had the white nape- 

 band, which I find is absent in Lord Walden's specimen 

 of M. melunoleucus , which he has been kind enough to lend 

 me ; nor is it mentioned in Mr. Hume's description of the 

 species (Stray F. ii. p. 525). 



4. Falco barbarus, L. ; Sharpe, /. c. p. 386. 



I examined an adult specimen of this Falcon, shot by M. 

 A, Bouvier dui'ing his expedition to the Cape-Verd Islands. 

 He killed it in a lonely gorge in the mountains. A flock of 

 St.-Jago Sparrows [Passer jagoensis) came suddenly in sight, 

 the Falcon following in quick pursuit. 



5. Cerchneis tinnunculus (L.) ; Sharpe, /. c. p. 425. 

 The species named by Swainson Falco rufescens, from Se- 



negambia, has been supposed by myself and other ornitho- 

 logists to belong probably to the dark resident form of the 

 Abyssinian highlands -, but I have now examined a series of 

 Kestrels, received direct from Senegal by M. Bouvier, and 

 I can aflfirm that they are nothing but the ordinary Kestrel 

 of Europe, which doubtless goes to Senegal in winter. 



6. Cerchneis naumanni (Fleisch) ; Sharpe, /. c. p. 435. 

 Sent by the same collector from Senegal to M. Bouvier 



were several specimens of the Lesser Kestrel, which is thus 

 introduced for the first time as a West-African bird. His 

 correspondent informed M. Bouvier that they were not re- 

 gular migrants, and only came when there were plenty of 

 locusts, which they followed in flocks along with Nauclerus 

 riocouri. The latter was also a bird of irregular and rare ap- 

 pearance ; but on the present occasion he obtained five of each 

 species out of the flock. 



7. Bubo sinensis, Heude, Ann. Sc. Nat. (5) xx. art. 2. 



I examined the type of this species : it has still remains of 

 nestling-plumage and is covered with down, but it is sufii- 

 ciently advanced to allow of its being identified at once with 

 Bubo coromandus; it is therefore not new to science, but is 

 of interest as being the first instance of this bird's occurrence 

 in China. 



