CERCHNEIS ARDESIACA. 67 
country :— This pretty little hawk is found near the river. It appears 
_ only at sunset and in the dusk, when, coming in great numbers from 
the shady forest or from among the fronds of the lofty Borassus-palm, 
it hoyers, swallow-like, over the plains and water, catching dragon- 
flies and locusts, which, with other insects caught on the wing, seem 
to constitute its chief or only food. In February and March it was 
seen in numbers on the Shiré, where the bush-vegetation and palm- 
forest come down to the river.” 
Adult male.—Above leaden black, a little paler on the lower back 
and secondaries, the greater wing-coverts and primaries clearly 
washed externally with silvery grey; tail greyish black above, paler 
beneath ; under surface of body pale grey ; lower abdomen, thighs, 
vent and under tail-coverts bright chestnut; under wing-coverts 
pure white ; cere and orbits orange; feet and tarsi dark orange, claws 
whitish ; bill dark orange, black at tip; iris hazel. Total length, 9°5 
inches; culmen, 0°75; wing, 9°0; tail,5°3; tarsus, 1:15. (Sharpe, 
Cat. B. i, p. 445.) 
N.B.—The above particulars as to the soft parts are given by 
Ayres’ (Ibis, 1868, p. 41). Mr. Gurney observes that the female 
“differs materially from the female of C. vespertinus in the absence 
of rufous tints from all the upper portions of the plumage.”—See 
the accurate plate in the Ibis, loc. cit. 
Young.—Brownish, the feathers indistinctly margined at the tip 
with dull fulvous, the lower scapulars, inner secondaries, ramp and 
upper tail-coverts inclining to greyish, all tipped with fulvous and 
barred with dull black; tail grey, with distinct transverse bars of 
black ; sides of the face and throat white, the nape also mixed with 
white; the lores and feathers of the eye as well as the indistinct 
moustache brown; rest of under surface of body white, the breast 
thickly covered with blackish central streaks to the feathers, the 
thighs and under tail-coverts buffy white, the former tinged with 
rufous. 
Fig. Gurney, Ibis, 1868, pl. 2. 
61. CrrcHNEIS ARDESIACA. Grey Kestrel. 
Only one specimen of this exclusively north-tropical species has 
occurred within our limits. According to Prof. Barboza du Bocage, 
a single specimen was procured at Humbe on the River Cunéné by 
F2 
