20 FALCONING. 



Adult female : dissimilar to the male. Above tawny-rufous, 

 transversely crossed by bars of blackish-brown, narrower and more 

 obscure on the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts, the latter 

 of which are strongly inclined to grey; tail rufous, barred with 

 black, tipped with whitish, before which a broad subterminal band 

 of black ; head and neck rather paler rufous, the former broadly, 

 the latter more narrowly, streaked with blackish shaft stripes; 

 forehead and a distinct eye-brow whitish; cheeks and ear-coverts 

 silvery-white, with narrow shaft lines of black ; primaries dark- 

 brown, barred on the inner web with rufous; secondaries colored 

 like the back, the outer ones narrowly margined with white at the 

 tip ; throat, vent and under tail-coverts fulvous- white, unspotted ; 

 breast inclining to rufous- fawn color; all the feathers mesially 

 streaked with blackish, these stripes being broader on the flanks, 

 and very tiny on the sides, which are also paler rufous. Total 

 length, 12'5 inches; culmen, 07 ; wing, 9'3; tail, 5'9; tarsus, 1'2. 



Young male : like the old female, but somewhat paler rufous. 

 The blue tail is assumed by a moult, the blue head being, on the 

 other hand, gained by a change of feather. Birds in intermediate 

 stages are often thus seen. Sharpens Catalogue. 



The Lesser Kestril has been recorded from the Deccan by 

 several observers, but Mr. Hume remarks that it is doubtful whe- 

 ther the form that occurs there may not be the closely allied 

 Cerdmeis pekinensis. I therefore add a description of the latter. 



18 fo's. Cerchneis pekinensis, Swinh. 



Adult male : very similar to G. naumanni, but darker and 

 more vinous-red above ; underneath also darker colored and un- 

 spotted when adult. The principal distinction is in the wing- 

 coverts, which are almost entirely blue-grey, only the very inner- 

 most being slightly washed with rufous. Total length, 12 inches ; 

 culmen, 0'8 ; wing, 9'6 ; tail, 5*8; tarsus 1-45. Sharpes Cata- 

 logue. 



Cerchneis vespertina, Lin. 



19. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 41. 



1 9 bis. Butler, Deccan; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 371 ; Hume's 

 Scrap Book, p. 106. 



THE RED-LEGGED FALCON. 



<?. Length, 11; wing, 875. 



$. Length, 11 '5; wing, 9'25 ; expanse, 27; tail, 5. 



Bill fleshy-red, with a dusky tip ; cere and legs deep orange- 

 red ; claws fleshy ; orbitar skin orange-yellow. 



Young bird : above dark slaty-grey, some of the feathers centred 

 and tipped darker; tail light grey, obsoletely barred; ocular region 

 and cheek-stripe nearly black ; narrow frontal band, supercilium, 

 lores, ear-feathers, and sides of neck and throat white; breast and 

 abdomen rusty-white, with blackish-brown marks, longitudinal on 

 the breast, heart-shaped on the sides, and arrow-like on the centre 



