115 



apparently overlooking the difference in the barring of the tail-feathers. This dark-coloured 

 race is doubtless the bird called by Eiippell Tinnunculus rupicolus, and alluded to by Bonaparte 

 as "Tinnunculus rupicolce-formis, Wiirtemberg," a name apparently never published and not 

 alluded to in Dr. von Heuglin's recently published work on the Ornithology of North-eastern 

 Africa. 



Besides all the examples we have examined in collections of European birds in this country, 

 we have also seen a large number of Indian specimens in Lord Walden's collection, and we are 

 further indebted to Mr. R. Swinhoe for the loan of a beautiful series of Kestrels from China. 

 We have critically examined all these specimens, and we believe that the Kestrel of China is the 

 same as the Japanese Kestrel, called by authors Tinnunculus japonicus. We cannot, however, 

 consider this eastern bird to be specifically distinct from the Common Kestrel of Europe, although 

 we confess that the dark-coloured individuals at first sight look very different. But in the series 

 which Mr. Swinhoe has placed before us all shades of colour are represented, from very light 

 fawn to very dark rufous. Neither can we satisfactorily account for these changes ; for specimens 

 of both light and dark forms occur at Amoy in the same month of the year. We notice, how- 

 ever, that the majority of the pale-coloured individuals were obtained in the months of October 

 and April, while most of the dark-coloured specimens were procured between November and 

 February; so that the light-coloured race may be the resident Kestrel, and the dark-coloured race 

 the winter visitant, which would be exactly the contrary to what obtains in Europe and the 

 Western Palsearctic Region generally. The tail in most of the dark rufous specimens from 

 Japan and China is washed with blue, as in the Madeiran and Abyssinian races ; but the breadth 

 of the bars on the rectrices varies ad infinitum, and in the eastern races, at least, does not seem to 

 be a character of any great importance. 



In a series of specimens which Lord Walden was kind enough to submit to us from 

 India, Ceylon, and Burmah, we noticed many very pale-coloured specimens along with other 

 individuals which it would have been impossible to distinguish from British-killed Kestrels, so 

 that there can be no doubt that the European bird goes into India ; and it also probably occurs 

 in Northern China ; but at present we believe that it is the dark Japanese form which takes its 

 place in Southern China, and thence northward to Japan. 



The present species is a common bird in Great Britain, breeding everywhere. It is to a 

 certain extent migratory, as noticed by Waterton; and Mr. Hepburn, in a note contributed to 

 Macgillivray's ' British Birds,' says so also. Macgillivray himself considers that in the districts 

 bordering the Firth of Forth they are as numerous, if not more so, in winter than in summer, 

 and that probably, " like the Merlin, this species merely migrates from the interior to the coast." 

 In the north of Ireland Thompson considers them to be quite as numerous in winter as in summer 

 in their usual haunts. 



Mr. Stevenson in the ' Birds of Norfolk ' says : — 



" Migratory specimens from the north also appear on our coast in considerable numbers 

 towards the end of autumn, when many are trapped and shot on the hills by the sea-side, 

 particularly about Northrepps and Beestar, near Cromer. It is probable, I think, that some of 

 our native birds proceed further south during severe weather ; and I believe, as a rule, like our 

 common Song Thrush, they quit altogether the more exposed parts of the country in the depth 



