110 RUFOUS KESTREL FALCON. 



General colour of the plumage cinereous or light 

 rufous, much paler beneath; cere, bright yellow; 

 bill, blue. Head, neck, and their sides, marked 

 with narrow stripes, one being down the shaft of 

 each feather, but none on the chin, and scarcely 

 any on the ears. The whole of the back, rump, 

 tail, wing-covers, and tertials are marked with 

 transverse bands of brownish-black, at nearly equal 

 distances from each other ; of these, there are 

 generally three on each feather, one in the middle, 

 and one at each end. The terminal band is broadish, 

 and that at the base is obsolete on the smaller 

 feathers. The long tertials and the larger covers 

 have four bands, those on the latter being of equal 

 breadth, and equal distance from each other. The 

 middle tail-feathers have from nine to ten of these 

 bands, which run directly across the two webs 

 towards the end of the feathers, but become alternate 

 at the base ; besides these, there is a terminal band 

 nearly an inch broad, and which leaves the extreme 

 tip, or margin, dull whitish. The spurious quills 

 are dark brown, with four external spots of ferru- 

 ginous; the lesser quills the same, but with five 

 spots, opposite to each of which, on the inner web 

 only, is a transverse spot of the same colour. The 

 greater quills have the whole of their outer webs 

 entirely brown. It is by this peculiar character 

 that the species is distinguished, for in the Javanese 

 bird the greater quills have five distinct spots on 

 their outer webs. The inner webs of our bird are 

 marked with the indented bands, usual in the 



