470 Mr. J. H. Gurney on 



Australian Accipitres/ p. 61, gives as its habitat "the eastern 

 and southern parts of Australia ;^' but it would appear occa- 

 sionally to wander to Tasmania also, as two Tasmanian ex- 

 amples are recorded in the ' Proceedings of the Royal Society 

 of Tasmania ^ for 1875, p. 8 ; and a specimen, said to have 

 been obtained in that island, is preserved in the Norwich 

 Museum. 



The most northern example that I have seen of this species 

 is a specimen, which is also in the Norwich Museum, from 

 Lizard Island, off the N.E. coast of Australia. 



There remain but two more Old-World Kestrels to claim 

 our attention — T. cenchris and its very closely allied oriental 

 representative, T. pekinensis. 



For the first of these Mr. Sharpe has adopted the specific 

 name of "^ naumanni ;" but cause has been shown (and, I 

 think, satisfactorily), in 'The Ibis^ for 1874, p. 361 (foot- 

 note), and for 1875, p. 515, for retaining, in preference, the 

 name of " cenchris," proposed for this species by Naumann 

 himself. 



Mr. Sharpe does not refer to the Asiatic habitats of this 

 species ; but it has been recorded as breeding in Asia Minor, 

 Syria, Persia, and Turkestan, and it has also been observed as 

 a spring migrant in Arabia. 



Its congener, T. pekinensis, has, so far as I know, only been 

 recognized in India and in China, and must, I think, be con- 

 sidered merely a subspecies of T. cenchris^ the differences 

 between them being limited to the adult males'^, and even in 

 them not being very constant. 



Mr. Sharpe thus describes the adult male of T. pekinensis : 

 — " Very similar to C. naumanni, but darker and more vinous 

 above ; underneath also darker-coloured, and unspotted when 

 adult. The principal distinction is in the wing-coverts, which 

 are almost entirely blue-grey, only the very innermost being 

 slightly washed with rufous. ^^ 



The males of T. pekinensis which I have examined are but 



* Mr. Swinhoe's observation aa to the colouring of the tips of the pri- 

 maries (to which I refer in a subsequent paragraph) may possibly refer to 

 both sexes. 



