570 .AVES. 



the breast and belly and leg-coverts have black streaks, fainter on the thighs. The 

 cheek stripe is not very distinct. 



6. Palco saturatus, Blyth. 



Tinnunculus alaudarius, Bljth, Cat. Birds, As. Soc. Mus., p. 15, No. 69 I, 1849. 



Tinnunculus saturaius, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. xxviii, 1859, p. Ill ; Ibis, 1866, p. 238; 



Hume, Rough Notes, 1869, p. 100; Stray Feathers, vol. v, 1877, p. 129; Blyth & Walden, 



Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. xliv, extra No., 1875, p. 59. 

 / Tinnunculus atratus, Blyth, Gr. R. Gray, H. L. Birds, Brit. Mus., 1869, p. 23; Walden, Journ. As. 



Soc, vol. xliv, extra No., p. 59; Sharpe, Cat. Accip., Brit. Mus., 1874, p. 426; Hume, 



Stray Feathers, 1877, vol. v, p. 129. 



a. 5 juv. Momien, June 1868. 



I shot this Kestrel on the grassy hills about Momien. It is remarkable for the 

 especially very dark and rich colour of the upper plumage, and on which the reddish- 

 brown areas, instead of assuming the form of transverse bars, are converted into 

 round spots by the dark blackish-brown of the feathers being prolonged along the 

 shafts and along the margins, and to that degree that the latter colour is more pro- 

 nounced than the former. I have never observed this plumage in true F. tinnunculus. 

 A bird, however, from Tenasserim approaches the Yunnan bird in this respect, but 

 with this difference that the reddish-brown is not reduced to spots, but while 

 retaining its barred character is equalled, if not eclipsed, by the dark-brown bars. 

 The bird presenting these colours is an adult female of the species named F. saturatus 

 by Blyth. On the under surface, the Yunnan bird has the feathers suffused with a 

 pale reddish, as also occurs somewhat in F. tinnunculus, but it is darker, and the 

 centre of each feather is also longitudinally marked with a broad black band, as in 

 F. tinnunculus. In the type of F. saturatus, this rufous colouring of the under parts 

 is absent, but it was an adult. 



The type of F. saturatus is a female. Two females of what I believe to be this 

 race or species exist in the Indian Museum, but one of them bears in Blyth's hand- 

 writing the name " T.fuscatus" and the locality of Tenasserim and the Revd. J. Barbe 

 as the donor, which are the particulars of the specimen referred to by Blyth in his 

 Catalogue, p. 15, No. 69 I, and mentioned as being probably the female of a distinct 

 race remarkable for the great development of the dark markings of its plumage. 



Comparing these specimens with a Calcutta female, F. tinnunculus, of the same 

 age, the striking features are the much greater prevalence of the dark markings and the 

 broader black banding of the tail, also the broader dark markings on the breast. In 

 a young male from Tenasserim received from the late Mr. W. S. Atkinson, the back 

 is richer reddish than in F. tinnunculus, and the black spots are much larger, the head 

 also is darker slaty-black, and the breast spots are long and linear, and the round 

 black spots on the belly fewer, but larger than those of F. tinnunculus. The grey tail 

 of this specimen is darker than the tail of F. tinnunculus, and the barring on the 

 inner webs is stronger, and the bars, it seems to me, are more numerous, but the 



