456 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



place, advert to the most extensively diffused of the Old- World 

 species, T. alaudarius (Gmel.), in its typical phase of plumage, 

 and to its darker races, which have received subspecific rank 

 from some authors, but not from Mr. Sharpe, under the 

 several titles of neglectus (Schleg.), interstinctus (M^Clell.)"^, 

 and japonicus (Temm. & Schleg.), names which I find conve- 

 nient for use, though only to be taken as indicating local races 

 of one widely-spread true species. 



As regards these races, I would refer to the remarks con- 

 tained in the article on T. alaudarius by Messrs. Sharpe and 

 Dresser in the ' Birds of Europe,' to Mr. Sharpens observations 

 at pp. 426 and 428 of his Catalogue, and to his subsequent 

 article in the P. Z. S. for 1874, pp. 580 to 584; also to Mr. 

 Hume's remarks in Henderson and Hume's ' Lahore to 

 Yarkand,' p. 175, and to those of Captain Legge in his ' Birds 

 of Ceylon,' p. 175. 



To the information recorded by the authors just referred to 

 I may add a few supplementary notes, in the first place, as 

 regards the geographical distribution of the typical pale race, 

 and, secondly, as to that of the. darker southern and eastern 

 forms. 



With respect to the geographical range of the pale Kestrel 

 (the typical Tinnunculus alaudarius) I can add but little to 

 that which has been already recorded by Messrs. Sharpe and 

 Dresser in their article on this species in the ' Birds of Europe ; ' 

 but I have to correct an error of my own, the occurrence of 

 which I have lately discovered, to my no small annoyance. 

 In Andersson's ' Birds of Damara Land,' p. 18, I referred 

 to T. alaudarius a Kestrel obtained at Objimbinque on 1st 

 February, 1865 ; but on a reexamination of this specimen, 

 which is preserved in the Norwich Museum, I find that 

 it is, in reality, a rather large and coarsely-marked female of 

 T. cenchris, in which the claws, probably by reason of imma- 

 turity, have only partially attained the yellowish-white hue 

 characteristic of that species. How so flagrant an error could 



* M'Clelland's designation of' interstinctus " bears date from 1839, and 

 lias therefore priority over ^' saturatns,'' proposed by Blyth in 1859. 

 (C;^'. 'Stray Feathers,' vol. vi. p. 8.) 



