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



Kestrels as dark as T. neglectus, but larger than the average 

 of specimens of the insular race, and equalling (according to 

 my observation) the ordinary size of the typical T. alaudarius, 

 occur in A frica north of the equator, and are also to be found 

 as far eastward as the coast of China. All these Kestrels may, 

 I think, be included under the subspecific name of " inter- 

 stincius ; " but it is a subspecies less distinct from the typical 

 T. alaudarius than is either T. neglectus or T. japonicus, indi- 

 viduals frequently occurring with a complexion of coloration 

 intermediate between T. interstinctus and T. alaudarius, and 

 which it is difficult to assign Avith a trenchant accuracy to 

 either race. 



The most westerly example"^ apparently referable to T. 

 interstinctus which lias come under my notice is a young 

 Spanish male from the province of Madrid, which is preserved 

 in the Norwich Museum, and which is quite as dark as an 

 average Madeiran example of similar age and sex, but is de- 

 cidedly too large to be referred to the insular T. neglectus, or 

 to be regarded as a wanderer from Madeira. 



Mr. Sharpe has stated, in the P. Z. S. for 1874, p. 581, that 

 a dark race of Kestrels occurs in Senegambia ; but this has 

 not come under my personal observation. 



In Abyssinia, besides migratory individuals of the pale 

 typical T. alaudarius, there occurs a darker race, apparently 

 non-migratory, which is identical with Asiatic specimens of 

 T. interstinctus. Mr. Blanford obtained, at Adigrat, in Tigre, 

 at a level of 8000 feet above the sea, a pair of T. interstinctus, 

 shot 23rd and 25th April, and a male, in change, of the pale 

 # T. alaudarius, shot 22nd April. These three specimens are 

 all preserved in the British Museum. 



A female from Tangiers in the Norwich Museum is not 

 quite so dark in its coloration as the dark Abyssinian females, 

 but is, I think, sufficiently so to be referred to T. inter- 

 stinctus. 



The Norwich Museum possesses an adult male from Ceylon, 



* The Hertfordshire female previously alluded to^ though certainly a 

 dark bird, can, I think, hardly be referred to so southern a race as that 

 which has received the title of i?itershnctus. 



