the Birds of Chinkiang. 15 
that afternoon and subsequently laid another egg ; but the 
nest came to grief some time afterwards, and the birds 
left. They were about the Concession the following year, 
and were said to have mare trial of a Magpie’s nest in a 
tree on the Bund, but they did not remain, and bred some- 
where out of the town. 
One of the eggs taken has the ground-colour white, very 
thickly covered and almost obscured by specks and spots 
of pale brick-red. Over this there are specks, spots, and 
blotches of deep blood-red of several shades. It is ovate, 
with blunt and rounded apex, and measures 1°61 x 1°30”. 
The other egg is speckled, mottled, and blotched with deep 
brownish red of several shades, and is browner than the 
first. It is oval-ovate in shape and measures 1°62 x 1:30”. 
The two eggs left in the niche resembled the latter. 
I have five examples of this Kestrel from the district— 
an adult male shot at Nanking in winter by M. Lequerré, 
a French naval officer; an adult male shot by me in winter 
at Chinkiang ; and two females and an immature male also 
shot at Chinkiang in summer and autumn. One of these 
females has the crown and nape of a uniform dark brown 
colour, the interscapular region and back also dark brown, 
with a very few inconspicuous buffish-red incomplete bars 
or spots; the wing-coverts, scapulars, and tertiaries of a 
slightly lighter brown, with a few narrow and incomplete 
bars of buffish red. The other female, also a very dark 
bird, is more regularly and closely barred with reddish. 
Three live birds seen in the possession of natives, and all 
the wild birds seen at sufficiently close quarters, appeared to 
me to be also dark birds. I have never seen at Chinkiang 
the European C. alaudarius or the South Chinese and 
Japanese C. japonicus. A few individuals of the former 
visit Fohkien in winter, and the latter is the common form 
of Kestrel there during the cold season. 
159. ExyrHRopus AMURENSIS Gurney. 
I have an adult male shot on April 27, 1901, by Mr. 
Gibson, R.N., then a midshipman on H.M.S. ‘ Dido.’ It is 
the only specimen that I have seen from Chinkiang. This 
