390 FALCO VESPERTINUS. 



the cere and eyelids reddish-orange, the irides dark 

 brown, the base of the beak yellowish-white, the rest 

 dark horn-colour ; the tarsi and toes reddish flesh-colour, 

 the nails yellowish-white with dusky tips. Length of 

 the bird eleven inches. 



" Young males appear first in plumage similar to that 

 of the young females, changing at their first moult to 

 a uniform bluish-grey ; thighs and flanks ferruginous. 

 Cere, beak, tarsi, toes and nails, as in the old male. 



" Female. — The adult female has-the head and back 

 of the neck dark reddish-brown, the eye surrounded 

 with dusky feathers almost black ; the whole of the 

 back, wing-coverts, and tail-feathers, blackish-grey, 

 transversely barred with bluish-black ; upper surface of 

 the primaries uniform dusky black. The chin and 

 throat nearly white, breast and all the under surface of 

 the body pale rufous with dark reddish-brown longitu- 

 dinal streaks ; the thighs and their long feathers plain 

 rufous ; under wing-coverts i ufous with transverse bars 

 of dark brown ; under surface of the wing primaries 

 blackish-grey with numerous transverse bars of bluish- 

 grey ; under surface of the tail feathers bluish-grey, 

 with nine or ten bars of bluish-black, the bars increas- 

 ing a little in breadth as they approach the tip. Beak, 

 irides and tarsi as in the male. 



" Young females have the top of the head reddish- 

 brown, with dusky streaks; the eyes encircled with 

 black, with a small black pointed moustache descending 

 from the anterior part of the eye ; ear-coverts white ; 

 upper surface of the body dark brown, the feathers end- 

 ing with reddish-brown ; wing primaries dusky black. 



