458 Mr. J. H. Gurney^s Notes on 



show any constant difterence in coloration between one such 

 race and another, such slight differences as habitually exist 

 being limited to the adult males. 



Mr. Sharpe, at p. 427 of his Catalogue^ observes : — 

 " Throughout all these dark races of Kestrel one character is 

 predominant . . . , viz. that the female has more or less 

 of a shade of blue on the rump and tail.^' But this character 

 is not a constant one — many dark females want it, and some 

 pale females possess it, though more rarely than the darker 

 females. Mr. Seebohm, who has been so good as to allow me 

 to examine the fine series of Chinese Kestrels collected by 

 the late Mr. Swinhoe, now in his possession, has a decidedly 

 pale female obtained at Amoy in the month of February, in 

 which the bluish grey on the rump and tail are conspicuously- 

 prevalent. 



The grey on these parts seems to be indicative of a more 

 mature age than the ordinary female plumage ; some females 

 that have assumed it show on the upper tail-coverts transverse 

 bars of two shades of grey replacing the two shades of brown 

 Avhich form similar bars on that part in females of a normal 

 coloration ; in other cases these bars are altogether absent, the 

 rump being of a uniform grey, with the exception, in some 

 individuals, of small, wedge-shaped, slaty-black marks, which 

 appear, with the point downwards, on the lower part of the 

 shafts of some feathers of the upper tail-coverts, and especially 

 on the side feathers of that portion of the plumage. 



The remarkable Hertfordshire female figured by Mr. Sharpe 

 in the P. Z. S, for 1874, pi. 18. fig. 3, with the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts bluish grey, and the tail also of that colour on the 

 paler interspaces, is now preserved in the British Museum. It 

 has the plumage of the first-named parts transversely barred 

 with two shades of grey, each feather also showing the small 

 dark wedge-shaped spots just alluded to. Its general plumage 

 is very unusually dark for a British specimen ; but this may 

 perhaps be partly due to its having apparently newly moulted, 

 the feathers showing scarcely any signs of abrasion. It was 

 killed on 29th April. 



Dr. Scully, who has very kindly allowed me to examine the 



