114 



running across the end, the tips of the feathers fulvous ; throat fulvous, unspotted ; under surface of 

 the body dull rufous, the upper part of the breast streaked with 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, culmen - 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 longitudinally striped with black ; tail rufous, banded with black, the bars 

 nearest the extremity of the tail being broadest, the tips of the feathers fulvescent ; chin and abdomen 

 pale fulvous ; breast dull rufous, longitudinally striped with black ; the flanks indistinctly banded ; bill 

 and feet as in male. 



Young 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 the 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. 



The Common Kestrel ranges over the entire Palsearctic Region, being found throughout Europe 

 and Siberia, visiting India in the winter, and also migrating, but apparently in more limited 

 numbers, 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 

 races. Professor Schlegel, in his Catalogue of the Leiden 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 still 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 Tinnunculus 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 only, as even within the limits of the 

 Western Palsearctic Region one of these races is met with. In Madeira the Kestrels are much 

 darker ; and we are indebted to our friend Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown for a specimen shot in that 

 island by Mr. A. J. Grant in November 1862. Compared with English female Kestrels the bird 

 in question is not only darker in all its tints, which incline to very deep rufous on all parts of the 

 body, but also in having the cross bands on the tail much broader, while at the same time the 

 centre tail-feathers are strongly washed with blue. A female specimen from Abyssinia exactly 

 agrees with the Madeira skin ; and a male specimen from the same country, in Lord Walden's 

 collection, is much darker than European specimens. This curious difference in the resident 

 Kestrel of North-eastern Africa has not been overlooked by Dr. von Heuglin, who also remarks 

 the broader bands on the tail. Professor Sundevall has likewise drawn attention to this dark 

 race, but says that the general style of plumage agrees with that of the European bird, 



