THE KESTRIL. 217 



plumage bright chestnut, with a few minute streaks of black on the breast 

 and abdomen and a round spot or two on the thighs ; under wing-coverts 

 chestnut variegated with black ; tail slaty black, the centre feathers obso- 

 letely barred with dark grey and the others barred with rufous on the 

 inner webs ; quills dark brown, barred with rufous on the inner webs. 



The streaks on the breast are lost when the bird is fully mature. 



Cere, orbital skin and legs reddish yellow ; bill plumbeous. (Jerdon.) 



Length about 11 inches, tail 4*5, wing 8'5, tarsus 1*15. The female is 

 considerably larger. 



The Indian Hobby is stated by Mr. Blyth to occur in Tenasserim. 

 Looking to its distribution it is extremely likely to be found also in Pegu 

 and Arrakan. 



It is met with in the Himalayas as far as Kumaon and in Bengal. 

 Major Legge includes it in the birds of Ceylon, and it ranges down the 

 Malay peninsula to Java, extending to Borneo, the Philippines, Celebes 

 and New Guinea. 



There is comparatively little known about this Hobby. 





Genus TINNUNCULUS, Vieill. 



589. TINNUNCULUS ALAUDABIUS. 

 THE KESTRIL. 



Falco tinnunculus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 127 ; Dresser, Birds Eur. vi. p. 113, pi. ; 

 David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 36 ; Seebohm, B. Birds, i. p. 45. Falco alauda- 

 rius, Gin. Syst. Nat. i. p. 279. Tinnunculus saturatus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 

 xxviii. p. 277 ; Hume, S. F. v. p. 129. Tinnunculus alaudarius, Jerd. B. Jnd. 

 i. p. 38 ; Hume, Rough Notes, i. p. 96 ; id. Nests and Eggs, p. 21 ; id. S. F. iii. 

 p. 22 ; Bl # Wald. B. Burm. p. 59 ; Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 453 ; 

 Gurney, Ibis, 1881, p. 456. Cerchneis tinnuncula, Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. 

 i. p. 425 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 3 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 114 ; Hume, S. F. 

 viii. p. 81 ; Scully, S. F. viii. p. 223 ; Gates, S. F. x. p. 178. Falco saturatus, 

 Anders. Yunnan E.iped. p. 570. Cerchneis saturata, Hume 4- Dav. S. F. vi. 

 p. 3. 



Description. Adult male. Forehead yellowish; head dark bluish ash, 

 with black shaft-lines ; wing-coverts, back and scapulars brick-red, with 

 triangular black spots ; upper tail-coverts and tail bluish ash, the former 

 with obsolete black shaft-lines and the latter with a broad band of black 

 across the end and tipped white; quills dark brown, notched with white on- 

 the inner webs, tipped and partially edged narrowly with white ; sides of 

 the head with a moustache blackish ; chin and throat white ; whole under 



