ia 
CERCHNEIS TINNUNCULUS. 61 
the following terms: ‘The only South African example of this 
Kestrel which has come under my notice is a female killed at 
Objimbinque, Damara Land, on the Ist of February, 1865, and com- 
prised in Mr. Andersson’s last collection. This specimen, which is 
preserved in the Norwich Museum, is of the ordinary European 
type.” As, however, the species may have been overlooked, a full 
description is here added, extracted from the Catalogue of Birds 
(I. p. 426). 
Adult male.— Upper parts brick red, with a few arrow-head 
markings of black, larger on the inner secondaries ; primary-coverts 
and quills dark brown, the former narrowly margined with rufous, 
the primaries notched white for about two-thirds of their length, 
the inner primaries and outer secondaries narrowly edged and 
tipped with buffy white; head and neck clear blue-grey with narrow 
black shaft stripes; forehead and narrow eyebrows buffy white; 
cheeks silvery grey, inclining to blackish below the eye and on the 
fore part of cheeks, forming a tolerably distinct moustache ; lower 
back, rump, upper tail-coverts and tail clear blue-grey, the latter 
tipped with ashy white, before which is a broad subterminal band of 
black; throat and under tail-coverts buff, unspotted ; remainder of 
under surface rufous fawn, the chest-feathers mesially streaked with 
black, these dark centres being larger and more oval in shape on the 
flank feathers, the thighs clear rufous, unspotted; under wing- 
coverts white, spotted with black ; bill blueish horn-colour, black at 
tip, yellowish at base; cere, orbits and feet yellow; iris brown. 
Total length, 12°5 inches; culmen, 1°75; wing, 9:2; tail, 6°7; 
tarsus, 1°6. 
Adult female.—Similar to the male underneath, but not so deeply 
coloured. Upper surface entirely rufous banded with black, with a 
faint blueish shade on the rump, the upper tail coverts inclining to 
buff; head rufous, streaked with black; tail rufous, banded with 
black, the bars not being strictly continuous, tipped with buffy white, 
before which is a conspicuous broad band of black; facial features 
and soft parts as in the male. Total length, 12°5 inches; culmen, 
0°75; wing, 9:2; tail, 6:5; tarsus, 1°6. 
Young male.—Resembling the old female, but rather paler and 
more distinctly striped on the breast. The tail first changes, be- 
coming blue like that of the old male, and thus birds are often seen 
