2736 The Zoologist — September, 1871. 



under surface of the body dull rufous, the upper part of the breast 

 streaked ^ith narrow lines of black ; the sides of the body marked with 

 larger pear-shaped spots ; lower part of the belly and under tail- 

 feathers fulvescent ; thighs pale chestnut ; under wing-coverts white, 

 with a few irregular black spots ; bill yellow at base, black at tip, bright 

 blue in the middle; cere and orbital region yellow; feet yellow; iris 

 brown. Total length 14 inches, culmeu 0-7, wing 8-4, tail 7-0, 

 tarsus 1'3. 



"Adult Female. General colour above rufous, transversely banded with 

 broad bars of black, the secondaries tipped with whitish ; head longi- 

 tudinally striped with black ; tail rufous, banded with black, the bars 

 nearest the extremity of the tail being broadest, the tips of the feathei-s 

 fulvescent ; chin and abdomen pale fulvous ; breast duU rufous, longi- 

 tudinally striped with black ; the flanks indistinctly banded ; bill and 

 feet as in male. 



" Youvg Male. Resembling generally the old female, but somewhat lighter 

 in colour. The first signs of adolescence appear on the upper tail- 

 coverts, which become bluish grey ; and afterwards the tail itself 

 gets gradually grey, the black bars by degrees disappearing, while the 

 blue head is tlie last to be donned. We have seen a specimen shot in 

 December which had the blue tail of the male, but still preserved the 

 rufous head of the female, while examples killed as late as May still 

 have slight remains of black bars on the tail, and a dash of rufous on 

 the head. 



" TuE common kesti'el ranges over the entire Palaearctic Region, being 

 found throughout Europe and Siberia, visiting India in the winter, and 

 also migrating, but apparently in more limited uumbei-s, to Africa. In 

 some southern latitudes, however, where the kestrel is a resident species, 

 the bird assumes a dark phase of coloration, and thus is represented by 

 several local r;ices. Professor Schlegel, in his Catalogue of the Leyden 

 Museum, has drawn attention to these varied forms, and enumerates under 

 the heading of the ordinary species examples from all parts of Europe, 

 Africa, and Ceylon; specimens from Nepal, he finds, are rather darker in 

 tint, and in those from Japan and Northern China he remarks that the 

 colours are stiU more deep, and the black stripes on the head of the old male 

 much more pronounced. These latter are the birds figured in the ' Fauna 

 Japonica' as Tiununculus alaudarius, var. japonicus. In specimens from 

 Southern China, Professor Schlegel observes that the size appears to be 

 a little smaller, and the coloration even darker than in the kestrel of Japan. 



" The learned Professor, who is one of the first authorities on falcons, is 

 no doubt right in assigning to these dark-coloured kestrels subspecific rank 



