1920.] South African Accipiires. 621 



below the wing-measurements of the three specimens men- 

 tioned above, and two of the typical race shot by myself in 

 East Griqualand. 



Wing-measurements. 



T. rupicolus rupicolus. ... rS ^\" 2 lO"- E. Griqualand. 



T. 7-upicolus rhodesi .... c? 9" 5 ^h."- Matopo Hills. 



2 9j". Bulawayo. 



I would also note that Mr. Austin Roberts, of the Trans- 

 vaal Museum, who examined these specimens some time 

 ago, was apparently struck by these distinctions, as he has 

 made a note on tlie labeLs, '^sub-sp. nov.", but as he 

 has not named or described them I have taken the liberty 

 of doing so. 



54. Tinnunculus rupicoloides (Smith). Large African 



Kestrel. 

 Tins is a bird of the drier parts of South Africa, and I 

 have only met with it in the South- West Protectorate, where 

 it is not uncommon in some parts. It is, for a Kestrel, a 

 somewhat sluggish bird, spending a good deal of its time 

 perched on the top of some thorn-tree, telegraph-pole, or 

 other conspicuous position, from which it looks out for its 

 prey, swooping down on it and then returning to its perch 

 to eat it. 1 cannot remember to have seen this species 

 hovering in the way the European, and to a less extent 

 the common South African Kestrels do^ but its food 

 is much the same, small rodents and insects of various 

 sorts. I have nothing to note with regard to plumage- 

 changes. This is the only true Falcon I know which has 

 a pale-coloured iris ; in the adult it is either white or pale 

 yellow. 



55. Tinnunculus cenchris (Naum.). Lesser Kestrel. 

 Tinnunculus cenchris 2}(^ki)ieusLs'( (Swinhoe). 



I have sometimes found this species very common in 

 the parts of South Africa where I have been, but never met 

 with it in eastern Poudoland. In East Griqualand it was 



