227 



*323h. Cerchneis cinnamominus equatorialis Mearns, 

 Auk., 1892, p. 269. [^" Guayaquil," error e 

 ^interior of Ecuador, type No. 101, 309 in 

 coll. U.S. Nat. Mus.] 



[C. c. cauccB Chapm. and C. c. andina 

 Cory, synonyms.]^ 

 Andean Kestrel. 



Ecuador ; 

 N. to West 

 Columbia (W. 

 slope of central 

 and northern 

 Andes) . 



Size similar ; wing(^ 178-190, tail 133 mm. ; 

 $ wing 184-190 mm. ; (^ head much darker, 

 blackish slate ; above darker rufous ; 

 tail band 18-22 mm. (central examples 

 widest, northern and southern narrowest) ; 

 below much deeper cinnamon ; spots on 

 sides fewer (except in less mature birds) ; 

 ? above (including tail) and below much 

 darker cinnamon rufous ; wing quills 

 washed with rufous on inner webs, black 

 bars much narrower and white inter- 

 spaces 6 mm. wide ; tail bands narrow 

 and regular as in C. c. cinnamominus, but 

 underside much less white and bars 

 appearing much narrower, with no black 

 terminal band. 



323c. Cerchneis cinnamominus fernandensis Juan Fernandez 

 Chapm., Bull. Am. Mus. N.H., xxxiv., Islands, 



oif Chile. 



i I think that the absence of exact locaUty for Mearns's type cannot be held 

 to disquaUty his name, as it seems certain the example came from some part of 

 Ecuador, and I accept " interior of Ecuador " as a sufficient locahty, since I am 

 unable to distinguish four (!) separate races for Ecuador as set forth by Cory (Field 

 Mus. Pub. Orn., Ser. i., pp. 319-23). C. c. cauccB appears to me to be a northern 

 extension of this dark form, reducing in size slightly ; C. c. andina appears to rest 

 on the largest and darkest birds, with fewest spots on sides, and presumably the 

 most mature, judging by the description and by presumed examples I have seen. 

 His C. c. peruviana, being the paler southern examples, is in my opinion untenable, 

 as most Peruvian birds can be referred either to cinnamominus or australis. There 

 are only two groups of forms in South America, the larger cinnamominus and the 

 smaller isabellinus. If a bird is of fair size and has spotted sides when quite adult 

 it must belong to the former, and if small, with unspotted sides when adult, it must 

 belong to the latter. To treat both as forms of sparverius, as Cory does, is confusing. 

 It cannot be too strongly emphasised that the spotting in the isabellinus group 

 is immaturity ; in cinnamominus it remains in the adult, but must vary as we 

 get away from the typical race. Andina, by its size, appears to belong to the 

 cinnamominus group, and according to Cory's description the spots are not entirely 

 absent. 



I 



