Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue 0/ Accipitres. 565 



There remains but one other Transatlantic Kestrel for 

 our consideration, T. sparverioides, a native of Cuba^ but ^ 

 apparently not entirely limited to that island, as a young 

 male, or possibly a very dark female, killed in St. Domingo 

 by M. de Saussure, was described and figured by that gentle- 

 man under the title of HypotriorcMs ferrugineus in the Rev. 

 et Mag. de Zool. for 1859, p. 117, pi. 3. fig. 1* and more 

 recently Mr. Lawrence, in his ' Catalogue of the Birds of 

 Dominica' (Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1878, p. 65) quotes the fol- 

 lowing from a communication by Mr. Ridgway, " I have a 

 male T. sparverioides in the plumbeous plumage from South 

 Florida.'' 



Dr. Grundlach, in his notes on the Birds of Cuba, has ex- 

 pressed his opinion that T. sparverioides is only a dark race 

 of T. dominicensis { = leucophrys) , and writes to the following 

 eflFect : — " One finds all transitions from one colouring to the 

 other ; and birds of both colourings frequently pair with each 

 other " f. This may be so ; but I have never seen a specimen 

 of an intermediate character, or showing traces of hybridism 

 between T. dominicensis and T. sparverioides. Mr. Ridgway 

 also says, in writing of these two species, " I have never yet 

 seen a specimen which was not decidedly one or the other"f. 

 Mr. Ridgway {loc. cit.) describes an old male of T. sparve- 

 rioides as, '' above, continuously dark plumbeous from bill to 

 tail." The description given by Mr. Sharpe is apparently 

 taken from a younger male, as indicated by " a tinge of rufous 

 on the interscapulary region," and the " deep bay " of the 

 lower rump and upper tail- coverts, with reference to which 

 I may mention that, in three nearly adult males in the col- 

 lection of Messrs. Salvin and Godman, plumbeous feathers 

 are appearing amongst the earlier rufous plumage of the 

 last-named parts. 



* The bird figured is supposed by Dr. Gundlacli to be a "dark female," 

 as he considers that if it had been a young male it would have had "only 

 one transverse band on the tail," instead of several as represented in the 

 figure. Lawrence, Ann. Lye. N. Y. vii. p. 248 (1860). 



t Journ. fiir Orn. for 1854, Supplementary portion, p. 84. 



X Land-Birds of North America, vol. iii. p. 162 (footnote). 

 SER. IV. VOL. V. 2 Q 



