18 FALCONINZ. 
with a broad black terminal band, white tipped at the end; beneath 
white, unspotted to the breast ; all the rest of the lower parts with 
narrow cross bands of dusky grey; quills with the inner webs 
banded dusky and whitish; tail with narrow cross bars, conspicu- 
ous beneath, not seen above. 
Young bird: head, nape, and moustache dark dusky-rufous, 
with dark mesial lines ; the upper parts grey, with dark markings 
to all the feathers; quills darker ; tail with numerous bars, and a 
broad black terminal band; beneath white, more or less tinged 
rusty, with some streaks on the neck and breast, and broadish 
bars on the abdomen and thigh-coverts. 
The Turumti is more or less common throughout the region. 
It frequents open country in the vicinity of cultivation, and I 
have often obtained its nest within village enclosures. It com- 
mences to breed in January,and nests may be found quite up 
to the end of March. They prefer rather high trees, such as 
tamarind and peepul, and in a fork near the top, they construct 
rather a neat cup-shaped nest of twigs, lined with grass, roots, 
&c. It would be rather a difficult nest to find were it not for 
the fussy habit the bird has of darting out, attacking, and 
driving away any bird that may happen to come near the tree. 
Jerdon says that they do not hesitate to attack the Tawny Eagle. 
The usual number of eggs is four, but I have occasionally found 
only three, well incubated. They are rather longish ovals, some- 
what chalky in texture, of a yellowish or reddish-brown color, 
closely stippled, blotched, mottled and clouded with darker shades 
of the same color. 
They average 1°65 inches in length by about 1°25 in breadth. 
Genus, Cerchneis. 
Tarsi long, strong, with transverse hexagonal scales; rest as in 
Falco. 
Cerchneis tinnunculus, Lzz. 
17.—Tinnunculus alaudarius, Brisson.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, 
Vol. I, p. 388; Butler, Guzerat; Stray Feathers, Vol. III, 
p. 444; Deccan and South Mahratta country ; Stray Feathers, 
Vol. IX, p. 370; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 71; 
Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 56; Hume’s 
Scrap Book, p. 96. 
THE KESTRIL. 
Narzi, Hin. 
6 Length, 13 to14; expanse, 30; wing, 10; tail, 6:25 ; bill from 
gape, 0°85; tarsus, 1°53. 
° Length, 15; wing, 10°75; tail, 7. 
Bill yellowish at the base, bluish-black at tips and on culmen ; 
irides brown ; cere and orbits bright yellow; legs and feet bright 
orange-yellow ; claws blackish-horny. 
Male: forehead yellowish; head, nape and tail fine ashy- 
