Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue 0/ Accipitres, 457 



have occurred I am unable to say, and I can only now correct 

 and regret it. As the result of this correction^ the most 

 southern point in Western Africa where T. alaudarius has been, 

 observed is, so far as I know, Fantee, a female of the pale race 

 received thence being contained in the museum at Norwich. 

 In Eastern Africa the most southern locality I know of for 

 this species is Mombasa, whence I recently recorded an 

 example {supra, p. 134). This specimen is also of the pale 

 race ; and I find, on measuring it, that it probably is not a 

 female, as I originally supposed, but a young male^'. 



With respect to the southern range of the pale T. alaudarius 

 in more eastern countries, I may note that the Norwich 

 Museum possesses an adult male which was obtained in the 

 Seychelles, and that Captain Legge, at p. 115 of his work 

 on the ' Birds of Ceylon,' mentions it as a regular winter 

 visitor to that island, as it is also in India. This pale race 

 extends as far eastward as the coast of China, where the two 

 darker phases of coloration, constituting the races known as 

 " interstinctus ^' and '' japonicus," also occur. 



In connexion with the geographical distribution of the 

 darker races, it may be convenient to allude to the slight 

 peculiarities which distinguish them from the paler race, the 

 typical T. alaudarius. In all the dark races or subspecies of 

 Tinnunculus alaudarius both the rufous portions of the plu- 

 mage and those which are spotted or barred with blackish 

 brown are more darkly and richly tinted than in the pale 

 race, a peculiarity which is common to both sexes, but varies in 

 degree in different individuaist- It is only in this respect that 

 the females of the dark races constantly differ from those of 

 the pale race ; and the females of the three dark races, though 

 exhibiting slight individual variations, do not appear to me to 



* This Mom'basa specimen is remarkable for having narrow brown 

 transverse bars on the sides of the breast, which I have not observed in 

 any other example of this species. 



t The plmnage of Kestrels becomes much worn and faded by exposure 

 to atmospheric influences, and this should be borne in mind in comparing 

 specimens of the different races. Newly moulted birds should, as far 

 as possible, be compared with those in a similar stage, and vice versa. 



