of North-Eastern Africa. 7\ 



I have never found Tinmmculas alopex in the interior of Abys- 

 sinia, in the prairies of Kordofan, or on the Blue and White 

 Niles, but it probably occurs in the southern parts of the Pen- 

 insula of Sennaar (near Djebel Rora and Djebel Gul) and in 

 Taka. It is not more shy than the species most closely allied to 

 it, and its voice is also the same. I add a more detailed de- 

 scription. 



The ground-colour is fox-red, with the exception of the throat, 

 which is dirty yellowish olive : there is a blackish spot before the 

 eye, produced downwards into a sort of beard, and deep-coloured 

 stripes on the shafts of the feathers of the upper part of the 

 body, of the breast, belly, and of the sides; these stripes are 

 brownish on the lower coverts of the tail and on the longest of 

 the upper coverts. Wing-feathers brownish-black, with trans- 

 verse, sometimes continuous, ferruginous spots on the inner 

 barbs, which become gradually lighter and nearly white at the 

 bases. The secondaries and tertiaries have a dirty yellowish- 

 olive margin at the extremities, and the transverse spots extend 

 also to the outer web, being interrupted by the shaft. The 

 scapularies have the spots on the shafts broader and rounded at 

 one end, and some of them have indistinct, dark, transverse 

 marks, probably the remnants of an earlier stage of plumage. 

 The tail is dark ferruginous superiorly, with the shafts some- 

 what darker ; it is lighter inferiorly, with from eighteen to twenty 

 narrow cross-bands, interrupted by the shafts, and gradually 

 becoming broader and more deeply coloured at the extremity. 

 The broad terminal band, however, which is found in most of the 

 other species, and the light coloration of the extremity, are en- 

 tirely absent. 



The lower coverts of the wings show the same coloration as 

 the upper parts of the body, whilst they are light olive and 

 black-spocted in F. tinnunculus, rupicola, &c., and uniform yel- 

 lowish white in F. rupicoloides. 



The male is distinguished by a rather more intense coloration, 

 the female by its somewhat larger size. The wings extend nearly 

 to the end of the tail. 



I know nothing of the earlier plumage, the propagation, &c. 

 of this Kestrel. 1 have found it from the month of December 

 to May, always in the same localities. 



