134 



10 



MS. appellations forwarded to Temminck and Naumann in private communications. Degland 

 and Gerbe refer to Falco tinnuncularius of Vieillot as published in 1817 (Nouv. Diet. xi. p. 93), 

 but no Latin name is here given. It is evident, therefore, that Temminck's name of F. tinnun- 

 culoides will stand, should not an older one be found in the former works of Naumann or in the 

 periodical above referred to, as the title proposed by Frisch is pre-Linnean. 



Figures of the Lesser Kestrel will be found in the following works : — Naumann' s ' Vogel 

 Deutschlands,' Taf. 29; Gould's 'Birds of Europe,' pi. 27; Werner's 'Atlas' to Temminck's 

 ' Manuel d'Ornithologie ' ; St.-Hilaire, ' Exp. Scientifique de Moree,' pis. 2 & 3 ; Bree's ' Birds 

 of Europe ' ; Fritzsch's ' Vogel Europas,' &c. : but of all the above authors, Naumann and Isidore 

 Geoffroy St.-Hilaire have alone given an illustration of the female. 



The descriptions of the birds in the present paper have been made from the following 

 examples: — That of the adult male is taken from a beautiful skin marked as fully adult by 

 Dr. Kriiper, and sent by that well-known naturalist from Attica, that of the female being from 

 an adult bird taken in Seville Cathedral by Mr. Howard Saunders himself. The young male 

 described was sent to us by Signor Olcesse, of Tangiers. In the Plate we have figured the 

 above-mentioned adult and young males, as the female is rather like that of the Common 

 Kestrel, and we thought it would be interesting to show a specimen in the act of gaming his 

 adult dress, as it illustrates the way in which this plumage is gradually assumed. It is a 

 noticeable fact that very old females of both the Common and Lesser Kestrels do assume more 

 or less of a blue shade on the upper tail-coverts ; and it is here that the first blue shade appears 

 in the young male, indicative that he is about to assume his more beautiful adult dress. Of the 

 three species of Kestrel mentioned by us in the present work it would seem as if F. tinnunculus 

 was the oldest species on the face of the earth, and F. pekinensis the most recent ; the latter, 

 indeed, has doubtless not long been evolved from F. cenchris, the change of plumage having been 

 induced by its comparative isolation, — that is to say, that the journey from North China to India 

 being sufficient to satisfy the migratory instincts of the progenitors of F. pekinensis, they did not 

 follow the bulk of migrating birds to Africa, but stayed in India, and thus became by degrees 

 modified into a distinct species. 



If the ancient Kestrels, as was most probable, were similar in sex like other Hawks, we 

 should have both male and female rufous in colour, spotted below, barred above. If we dare 

 judge from the fact that the female of the bird of the present day has a shade of blue on the 

 lower back when very old, and that the young male, similar to the female in his juvenile 

 plumage, first shows a trace of approaching adolescence by the appearance of blue on the same 

 part, we might easily conceive that the first tendency to sexual variation commenced thus, and 

 that the advantage gained by the lucky individuals being transmitted to their progeny, a gradual 

 tendency to don a grey plumage would be inherited; and this being of advantage in sexual 

 selection, was probably the case. This blue coloration extended to the tail itself (this being in 

 the young bird at the present day the next part to assume the blue tint) would still further 

 conduce to the benefit of the male ; while the blue on the head, a still further supplement to his 

 beauty, would have been the latest addition to his dress (as it is in the young bird still the last to 

 be assumed). The Lesser Kestrel (F. cenchris) has still further improved upon the garb of his 

 more ancient ally by assuming a richer coloration and a more slender form, no spots being 



