244 MANUAL OP PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



202. CERCHNEIS TINNUNCULU8 (Linna-us). 

 KESTREL. 



Falco tinnunculus LIXNJEUS, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 90. 

 Cerchneis tinnuncnla SHABPE, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1874), 1, 425. 

 Cerchneis tinnunculvs SHABPE, Hand-List (1899), 1, 276; GATES, Cat. 



Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 308; MCGREGOR and WORCESTEB, Hand-List 



(1906), 45. 



Luzon (Whitehead) ; Palawan (White). Europe and northern Asia; in winter, 

 Africa and the Indian Peninsula. 



"Adult male. Upper parts brick-red, with a few arrow-head markings 

 of black, larger on the inner secondaries ; primary-coverts and quills dark 

 brown, the former narrowly margined with rufous, the primaries notched 

 with white for about two-thirds of their length, the inner primaries and 

 outer secondaries narrowly edged and tipped with buffy white ; head and 

 neck clear blue-gray, with narrow black shaft-stripes ; forehead and narrow 

 eyebrow buffy white; cheeks silvery gray, inclining to blackish below the 

 eye and on the fore part of cheeks, forming a tolerably distinct moustache ; 

 lower back, rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail clear blue-gray, the latter 

 tipped with ashy white, before which is a broad subterminal band of 

 black ; throat and under tail-coverts buff, unspotted ; remainder of under 

 surface rufous-fawn; the chest-feathers mesially streaked with black, 

 these dark centers being larger and more oval in shape on flank-feathers ; 

 thighs clear rufous unspotted; under wing-coverts white, spotted with 

 black. Bill bluish horn-color, black at tip, yellowish at base ; cere, orbits, 

 and feet yellow; iris brown. Length, 317; culmen, 44; wing, 234; tail. 

 170; tarsus, 41. 



"Adult female. Similar to the male underneath but not so deeply 

 colored. Upper surface entirely rufous, banded with black, with a faint 

 bluish shade on the rump; upper tail-coverts inclining to buff; head 

 rufous, streaked with black; tail rufous, banded with black, the bars not 

 being strictly continuous, tipped with buffy white, before which is a 

 conspicuous broad band of black; facial features and soft parts as in the 

 male. Length, 317; culmen, 19; wing, 234; tail, 165 ; tarsus, 41. 



"Young male. Resembling the old female but rather paler and more 

 distinctly striped on the breast. The tail first changes, becoming blue 

 like that of the old male ; and thus birds are often seen in partial plumage, 

 having the blue tail of the adult male, but retaining the rufous head of 

 the old female dress." (Sharpe.) 



Suborder PANDIONES. 



This suborder with a single family of two genera is distinguished from 

 the suborder Accipitres by having the outer toe reversible; in addition 

 to this the claws are very greatly curved and the under side of each claw 

 is rounded instead of being grooved or concave as in the hawks and eagles. 



