Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue of Accipitres. 471 



very slightly, and sometimes scarcely at all, darker and more 

 vinous than newly-moulted males of T. cenchris ; and the only 

 one ■which I remember to have seen corresponding in all 

 respects with Mr. Sharpens description of the fully adult male 

 was in the collection of the late Lord Tweeddale, and was one 

 of two specimens labelled " West Coast of India/^ The fol- 

 lowing are the memoranda which I made after examining these 

 Kestrels : — 



No. 1. Entirely immaculate below; entire wing-coverts 

 grey, except a row of rufous feathers on the ridge of the wing, 

 and rufous edgings to the adjoining median coverts. 



No. 2. Immaculate below, excepting four very small spots 

 on the abdomen, the rufous edging extending rather further 

 on the median wing-coverts, and the small coverts forming a 

 broader band of rufous than in No. 1. 



Most Indian males appear to be more or less spotted on the 

 abdomen, even Avhen the grey on the Aving-coverts has attained 

 the full dimensions described by Mr. Sharpe. {Cf. ' Stray 

 Feathers,^ vol. iii. p. 385, and vol. ix. p. 243.) 



The Norwich Museum, however, is in possession of a male 

 shot at Dinapore on 26th March, and presented by Mr. W. 

 E. Brooks, in which the whole under surface is absolutely free 

 from spots, leading to the belief that it is a very old individual ; 

 and yet the grey on the wing-coverts stops short of the carpal 

 joint by nearly an inch, and, altogether, is not more extended 

 than in ordinary males of T. cenchris — less so, indeed, than in 

 a male from Transvaal which is now before me. 



Mr. Blanford writes as follows with reference to the male 

 specimens of T. ceiichris (five in number) which he obtained in 

 Persia : — ''T. cenchris : all the specimens obtained agree with 

 the European and African species, and difl'er from Indian and 

 Chinese specimens [T.pekinensis, Swinli.) in their pale colour, 

 and in having most of the wing-coverts rufous ; but in two 

 specimens there is a complete absence of spotting on the 

 ventral surface, showing that this character disappears with 

 age''*. 



A specimen, entirely immaculate on the under surface, and 



* 'Zoology and Geology of Eastern Persia,' p. 106. 



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